


Lifeline

by GallifreyanPal



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Betrayal, Blueberror, Dancetale Sans (Undertale), Death, Dusttale Sans (Undertale), Errortale Sans (Undertale), Fresh Sans - Freeform, Gen, Genderbent Characters, Horrortale Sans (Undertale), In order to have murder evidence you gotta work with bodies and not dust, Inktale Sans (Undertale), Murder, Murder Mystery, Nightmare Sans - Freeform, Outertale Sans (Undertale), Queer Characters, Reapertale Sans (Undertale), The genderbending is because I'm not writing an all-male cast, Underfell Sans (Undertale), Underlust Sans (Undertale), Underswap Sans (Undertale), Xtale Sans (Cross) - Freeform, but not like all the time, dream sans - Freeform, female and nonbinary characters are important!!!, geno sans - Freeform, killer sans, non-binary characters, there's happy moments, utmv - Freeform, warnings at the beginning of every chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:01:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 60,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24602023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanPal/pseuds/GallifreyanPal
Summary: Kidnapped, stripped of their magic, and trapped inside a pocket dimension, sixteen powerful multiverse dwellers are forced to live within its confines under the pretense of "needing to get along". Not buying that one bit, they object, and are presented with a simple clause to leave the pocket dimension, which is as follows:Kill someone else and get away with it.-(Note: While technically a crossover, you don't need to know anything about Danganronpa to read this fic. The most you'll miss out on is a couple of jokes/references. This fic merely takes the premise of Danganronpa and applies it to the UTMV.)
Relationships: Sans & Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 137
Kudos: 144
Collections: Genuary 2021





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Lifeline, a UTMV fic written with the premise of my new favorite game series, Danganronpa! 
> 
> Disclaimer, you do NOT have to have played Danganronpa to read this fic. The only things I'm lifting from the games are the six-chapter, six-trial format and, of course, the killing game itself. All rules and lore will be explained right off the bat, so no worries, those of you who haven't played the games.
> 
> Disclaimer number two - Danganronpa is a game series best played blind. There will be NO plot relevant spoilers for ANY of the Danganronpa installments, though there may be references and jokes.
> 
> And finally, note number three: I'm not writing an all-male cast. Of the characters tagged, I am writing Cross, Geno, Reaper, Nightmare, Horror, Fell, and Dust as women, while Fresh and Outer (whom I've named Cosmo in the fic) will be written as non-binary.

The first thing that Cosmo realized when they woke up was that they weren't in Stardin anymore. It felt much too warm to be Stardin - in fact, it felt hot. Confused, they blinked their eyes open to see a flickering fireplace in front of them, burning bright under a brick chimney embedded in the wall and stretching past the ceiling. Their hands were resting face down on the ground like the rest of them, and so they pushed themselves up until they could stumble onto their feet. Their legs felt wobbly, like they hadn't used them in a while, and it took them a couple of tries to stay on their feet.

Where were they? The room around them was a somewhat large sitting room, with a couple of comfy looking couches around the fireplace. There was a pool table near the far wall, and a grandfather clock to Cosmo's left. Next to the clock was a door. The room had a couple of windows, but they were all solid black. Tinted, maybe? It looked like whoever made them didn't want anyone being able to look outside.

A loud bump and some swearing from under one of the couches startled Cosmo, and they bent down to look under them. "Are you okay?" they asked, peering to try and see who it was.

The figure under the couch poked their head out, revealing dark skin, black dreadlocks pulled into a high ponytail, and narrowed, fiery colored eyes. It took a moment for Cosmo to place where they'd seen the man before.

"Error? What are you doing under the couch?” they blurted as they stood back up.

"First of all, the fucking couch was not there when I went to nap. It was a really, really fucking soft beanbag," Error said in his defense, pulling himself out from under the couch and standing up. He made a face as he started to pick couch lint off his coat. "And second of all, who the hell are you and how do you know my name?"

Cosmo blinked softly. "I'm... I'm Cosmo. You come to Stardin all the time. You sit on the cliffside staring at the stars and bitch about your personal drama to your imaginary friends as if you're not being heard by like, every passerby."

Error blinked and frowned, pointing a finger at Cosmo. "You. I don't like you." A beat of silence followed. Error stood there with his finger poised, and Cosmo awkwardly pulled their jacket tighter around themselves. Error's frown deepened. "...That was supposed to send a string flying at your face. To strangle you."

Cosmo gulped. “Uh, well. Good thing it didn’t?” they said nervously.

“Unfortunate, that’s what it is,” Error scowled, uncurling his fingers and lifting his hand close to his face. After a moment, he reached up with his other hand and pulled his sleeve back to reveal a black metal bracelet, wrapped snugly around his wrist. He immediately started to tug at it to no avail. “The fuck is this?”

“It’s not yours?” Cosmo asked.

Error made a face. “This gaudy piece of shit? It’s got like, stars on it. Bright yellow.” He held up the bangle and Cosmo peered closer. The stars looked as if they were lights, lit up electronically from the inside. “Hey, you have one too.”

Cosmo paused for a moment before lifting up their own wrist and pulling back their sleeve. Indeed, they did have a bracelet of their own, identical to Error’s. They pulled at it almost exactly like he did, frowning when it wouldn’t budge. “That’s not a good sign,” they muttered. “Strange place, strange bracelets, and you couldn’t use your, uh,” Cosmo glanced Error up and down, “lethal string magic.”

Error pursed his lips for a moment, then curled his hand into a fist. It twitched, like he wanted to punch something. “No magic. Fucking great. I’m figuring out where we are, so. Don’t follow me.” He shot a glance to Cosmo, then made a beeline for the door.

Disregarding what Error had said, Cosmo trotted after him. “Hey, wait! We shouldn’t split up!”

Error shot a look over his shoulder. “What, can’t take care of yourself?” he said.

Cosmo huffed, trying to let the insult breeze past them, but it irked them all the same. “No, dumbass,” they said through gritted teeth. “Look, if you don’t have magic, that means I don’t have magic either, and that means we could be in real trouble if we come across something dangerous. It’d be better to come across it together rather than individually.”

Error looked royally pissed at the fact that Cosmo was right. “Fine,” he spat, “but don’t get in my way. If you do, when we’re out of this, your universe is at the top of my hit list.”

They exited the room together. The doorway opened into an expansive foyer, furnished with carpet and landscape paintings hung on the wall. There were archways to the left and right, leading down hallways on either side. Between them and the archways were two sets of curved staircases, leading to a floor above them. Across the foyer was a giant set of double doors that seemed to lead outside.

“Great, an exit,” Error muttered, taking large strides towards the doors. Cosmo tried to peer past him and out the tall windows that framed the set of doors, but they too were tinted dark, just like the windows in the room they’d previously been in.

“Wait, Error, I have a bad feeling-“ Cosmo started, but was interrupted by Error’s startled shriek. They rushed forward, watching Error wobble while clinging onto the doorway – was he about to fall? They weren’t sure. All they could see past Error was a pitch-black darkness. To save Error from falling forward, they grabbed the back of his coat, yanking him towards them. Despite having been saved, Error flailed in protest at the contact, causing both him and Cosmo to fall to the floor. Error scrambled away from Cosmo as fast as possible, scuttling on his hands and knees before pushing himself up into a kneeling position and glaring at Cosmo with what could only be described as murderous intent.

“Did you touch me?” he snapped.

Cosmo blinked. “I – no, I just grabbed your jacket!” they insisted, putting their hands up in surrender as they sat up. “You were about to fall!”

“Damn right I was,” Error said, calming down a bit and glancing over to the door. Both doors now stood wide open, and outside, there was… nothing. Nothing but darkness. No walls, no ceiling, no floor. Was that what the windows had been showing too? “Hey, star kid. Whatever your name was.”

Cosmo turned their attention away from the void and over to Error. “Yeah?”

“Are you sure you didn’t touch me?” he asked, less angry and more… frightened at the prospect.

Cosmo slowly shook their head. “I promise, I didn’t touch you.”

Error breathed out a small sigh of relief. “Good. Because if you did,” he said, pointing an accusing finger at Cosmo, “Magic or no magic, I’d kill you.”

Cosmo nodded. “You sure seem to be making a lot of death threats.”

“And? What does it matter? You’re all on the hit list one way or another, I just prefer to keep it organized. I don’t go after whoever I see like some ravenous wolf,” Error said.

Ah. That was right. Cosmo had only picked up bits and pieces of it before, while Error was sitting on the cliffside and loudly proclaiming his surefire sanity, but apparently this man believed he was some sort of executioner – a divinely appointed authority to destroy universes upon universes of people, places, and things. It was ludicrous. After several times overhearing his incessant ramblings, Cosmo began to believe that he seriously needed a therapist.

“Hey, earth to star kid,” Error said. “Are you brain dead? I said we need to find another way out of here. Or do you want me to leave you behind? I’m more than happy with that.”

Cosmo tuned back into the present. They looked up at Error, who was standing next to them about two feet away. “My name isn’t star kid, it’s Cosmo,” they replied, a little irritated. They quickly stood up. “And finding another way out sounds like a good idea.”

“…there? Is someone else there?” a voice called out. Cosmo and Error both turned their heads towards the left hallway, where the voice seemed to be coming from. A head of snow white hair peeked out from around the wall, scanning the room before flinching upon seeing the two. “Oh dear. Error, and… actually, I don’t believe I’ve met you,” the man voiced in a high tenor lilt, gently pointing to Cosmo as he rounded the corner. He was short – shorter than Cosmo, whose height wasn’t anything to brag about – with a stout, rounded figure and face.

“Oh, great. You,” Error huffed, crossing his arms. “Fuckin’ perfect.”

The man scrunched up his face in mild offense before Cosmo replied, “I don’t think we’ve met before either. I’m Cosmo. You and Error know each other?”

“To some extent,” the man replied. “We don’t talk much, but his reputation-” the man side-eyes Error for a moment, “precedes him.”

Error snorts. “Oh yeah, and yours doesn’t? _Lust?_ ”

The man frowned. “My name,” he said slowly, “is Hearts.” He turned to Cosmo, gently cupping their hand in a friendly greeting. “Call me Hearts, dear. Lovely to meet you.”

Error rolled his eyes. “Yeah, okay, stupid pleasantries beside us, did you happen to notice a way out at all?” he asked.

Hearts shook his head, letting go of Cosmo’s hand in the process. “No, I just woke up in one of the rooms down that hall. They’re like, hotel rooms, and there’s plaques on the doors with names on them. Both of your names were on a couple of them.”

“What, like we’re expected to stay here?” Cosmo said.

“Freaky, I know,” Hearts replied. “I’m ninety percent sure we’ve been kidnapped or something. Look at this.” He held up his right arm, and around his wrist sat the same bangle that both Error and Cosmo had found on themselves, black with yellow stars. “When I woke up, I had this on, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t get it off.”

“That’s the same for us,” Cosmo said, holding up their own wrist. “Also, Error can’t use magic, and I don’t think I can either.”

“Then do you think these are suppressing our magic?” Hearts asked. “I can’t use magic either.”

“That’s a possibility,” Cosmo mused, lowering their arm. They pulled their sleeve back down, taking a glance at Error, who currently looked like he was concentrating hard. He stared down at his hands, clenching and unclenching them. “…What are you doing?”

Error’s permanent scowl made no sign of changing, not did he look up from staring at his hands. “I’m trying to see if I can break through this magic restriction with sheer willpower. Pray I don’t, because I’ll strangle the both of you and port the hell out of here if I do.”

Hearts let out a sigh. “Sure you will,” he muttered. “Like you said you would the time you glitched into the wall of Grillby’s, and the time you walked in on me, and the time you broke my TV. All of which were your fault.”

“So he does this death threat thing a lot?” Cosmo said to Hearts, who nodded.

“I mean it,” Error snapped. “You’re both dead if I get my magic to work.”

Hearts rolled his eyes while Cosmo gripped the edges of their jacket and pulled it tighter around themselves. “Say, Hearts, how many rooms were there back in that hallway?” Cosmo asked, gesturing vaguely towards the archway Hearts had come from. “You said they all had names on them.”

Hearts shrugged nonchalantly. “Around fifteen or sixteen, I wasn’t really paying attention. The names are all people we – or actually, just people that Error and I know,” he said. “I’m actually really curious, since I haven’t seen you around before – which universe are you from?”

Cosmo did a double take. “Sorry, did you just say universe?”

Hearts nodded. “Yeah, you know. Error’s an outcode, and you know him, so I assumed you’re connected to the network.”

“Outcode? Network?” Cosmo asked. They’d heard those words mentioned by Error before, in the same way that Hearts had said them, but they didn’t really know what they meant – at least in the context that the both of them had used them in.

Hearts let his mouth fall shut, expression morphing into a frown. He glanced to Error. “So you’re going after universes off of the grid now?”

“What? No,” Error said, face scrunching in indignation. “I mean, they’re on my list anyways, but why would I waste time on them when the universes in-network are infinitely more dangerous to the alpha timeline? And besides that, how dare you-!”

“Okay, that’s enough of that, I get it,” Hearts cut him off. “So Cosmo’s on the grid?”

“How should I know?” Error said defensively. “I just go to their place to-” he snapped his mouth shut, looked off to the side, then grumbled, “-look at the damn stars, all right?”

Hearts snickered. “Wow, finally appreciating something from a universe that isn’t the alpha timeline?”

“The alpha timeline has them too! And they’re a lot fucking better!”

“Oh, sure, like you’d know. You can’t go there, glitch boy.”

“Is anybody going to tell me what the hell you mean by this?” Cosmo interrupted, looking in between Hearts and Error with a confused frown. “Look, I know that you-“ they looked at Error, “-have like, delusions of being a world destroyer or whatever, since you talk about it on the cliffside so much, but you’re obviously full of shit.” Hearts and Error exchanged a glance. Error burst into laughter while Hearts gave a low whistle. “I’m serious!”

“Honey, I know you are,” Hearts said sympathetically.

“Well that answers that question,” Error said in between fits of laughter. “That universe is totally off the grid.”

Cosmo’s head swam. Nothing made sense. Did Hearts actually believe that Error was a world destroyer? Were they both delusional?

…Were they both right?

“Okay, Cosmo, it’s basically like – damn it, I haven’t had to explain things to someone off-grid in years,” Hearts muttered, rubbing the back of his head. “Tell you what, you probably want to sit down for this anyways, so we can just-”

A sudden chime interrupted the conversation, followed by loudspeaker static. “Ahem! Is this thing on?” a voice said, drifting over what seemed to be a sort of PA system. Trying to locate the source of the sound, Cosmo looked up, eventually spotting a speaker embedded in the wall over the front door, close to the ceiling. “Perfect! All house inhabitants, please report to the common room! In case of needing directions, the common room is located directly inside, straight across from the front door. You may have seen it between the twin staircases, or while coming out from the kitchen or dormitories. A special announcement for all house inhabitants will be given as soon as everyone is present! Cheers!” With a click, the PA system turned off.

“Who do you think that was?” Cosmo asked nervously, looking between Hearts and Error’s dread-filled expressions. “Do you guys know who that was?”

“Blueberry,” Error muttered, then turned and stormed right back into the room he and Cosmo had come from.

Cosmo turned back to Hearts. “Who’s Blueberry?”

“His name’s Blue. Error’s the only one that calls him Blueberry,” Hearts supplied. “He went missing a while ago. We all suspected that Error had something to do with it. If he’s here now, and Error himself is somewhat scared of that fact…” Hearts trailed off, glancing over to the doors to the common room, which were opened just a crack. “That’s not a good sign.”

Left with more questions than answers, Cosmo followed Hearts back into the common room.

Within a few minutes, more people showed up at the door. Cosmo didn’t know or recognize any of them, but Hearts and Error did. The first person through was a woman named Cross, whom Hearts greeted politely enough, but Error only greeted with a huff and a vague threat to not step within a five-foot vicinity of him. Cross had rolled her eyes at this and then greeted Cosmo with a gruff nod. Cosmo smiled awkwardly back at her. They shook hands, and Cosmo got a closer look at Cross, who was a little taller than them with black, chin-length hair and brown, almond-shaped eyes. Upon a second look, however, Cosmo discovered her eyes were actually a dark red. Under her right eye sat a light pink scar shaped like a little zigzag – Cosmo almost missed it since it blended in with her skin, pale as snow.

“Don’t recognize you – Cosmo, you said?” Cross asked, brows furrowed. Cosmo nodded. “Cosmo. What universe are you from?”

“You know, that’s the second time I’ve been asked that question today,” Cosmo said, glancing over at Hearts and Error, who were currently loudly chatting with another woman that had walked in. She looked rather daunting, with big, curly black hair and a long black cloak, but the smile on her face told of a more easygoing personality. “And,” Cosmo added, glancing back at Cross, “I still don’t quite know what it means.”

Cross raised a brow. “Huh. So you’re off-grid.”

“That too,” Cosmo sighed. “Hearts and Error said that exact thing, and I have no idea what it means.”

Cross huffed and closed her eyes for a moment before looking down at Cosmo. “All right, short version. You know about multiverse theory?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“All true,” Cross said, folding her arms and leaning back on her heels. “You, me, Hearts, Error, Reaper over there,” Cross pointed to the woman in the cloak – so Reaper was her name? “-are all from different universes, alternates of one another.”

“Oh come on, that’s ridiculous! You really expect me to believe that?!” Cosmo exclaimed.

Cross rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay, it’s a bit hard to believe at first, but I seriously don’t have time to walk you through the five stages of grief or whatever shit you gotta process. Just - look. What’s your full name?”

“…Comic Sans Serif?” Cosmo replied. “Look, I know it’s weird, my parents were like, obsessed with computer fonts-“

“No hey, listen,” Cross said, expression morphing into a grin as she snickered loudly, “You used to just go by your middle name, right? Sans?”

“How did you know that?” Cosmo said. “Oh. Oh, no, you’re not going to tell me it’s because of-“

“Like it or not, yeah,” Cross replied. “That’s my name too, technically. I hate it, which is why I go by Cross.”

“Wait wait wait,” Cosmo said. “So you’re… me?”

“Oh, we’re nothing alike, I’ll fuckin’ tell you that right now,” Cross said. “First of all, we _look_ nothing alike, I’m Vietnamese and you look like, I dunno, white ish.”

“I think I’m Irish?” Cosmo suggested, holding a lock of their peach colored hair in front of their eyes before letting it drift down to its usual resting place, just above their shoulders.

“Let’s go with that,” Cross agreed. “Second of all, it’s not just us two. It’s Hearts and Reaper – and even Error, to an extent.”

Cosmo shook their head. “You’ve got to be joking.”

“Nope,” Cross said, popping the ‘p’. “Although I am kind of curious, how’d you get nicknamed Cosmo if you didn’t already know about the multiverse?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well you know, two Sanses is confusing enough, let alone ten or a hundred. The multiverse likes to make alternates of us in particular. Nicknames really help.”

“Oh,” Cosmo muttered. “Well, I can answer that one. Cosmo’s just my name; I changed it like – five years ago? I didn’t want to keep going by my birth name, and I’m an astronomy nerd, so yeah.”

“Huh. That’s certainly easier,” Cross muttered right as her gaze was drawn away by something over Cosmo’s shoulder. “Oh no. Dream’s here.”

Cross didn’t make a move to go greet who she’d labeled as Dream, but then again, Cross didn’t seem to be a very polite person, so maybe they should go greet him? Cosmo turned around to look over their own shoulder to see who Dream was, and – oh holy _shit,_ this man had muscle. Cosmo could describe him in three words: tall, blond, and _jock._ Broad-shouldered, complete with a sharp jawline and excellently defined muscles (though the thin black material that hugged his arms and legs didn’t obscure them in any way), Dream looked like he belonged on the front of a sports magazine. He turned his head towards Cosmo and smiled. The whiteness of his teeth alone looked like they deserved a cartoony shine across them.

“Hi, I didn’t catch your name,” Dream said, turning his whole body to face them, and their jaw almost dropped. His shoulders were even wider than they’d first thought now that Cosmo could see him head-on.

“Cosmo,” they barely managed to say in time before it became awkward. “I’m Cosmo. Cross said you’re Dream?”

Dream’s expression brightened. “Cross is here? Where is she?” He glanced over Cosmo’s shoulder. “Cross, hi!”

Cross groaned and sat down in an armchair that faced away from the door, sinking into its cushions. “Piss off, loser.”

“Aw, hey, don’t be like that. It’ been forever since I’ve seen you!”

“No, actually, I’ll sock you in the arm if you get closer.”

“Come on, you wouldn’t – ow!” Dream had walked right past Cosmo and towards Cross, resulting in him indeed getting socked in the arm. Cosmo decided to ignore the two for now and make conversation with the woman named Reaper – or they would have, if more people hadn’t popped in the room with a rather loud announcement.

“What’s poppin’, my fine friends?” a colorfully clad individual said as they glided into the room with an odd noise rolling against the hardwood floor. Cosmo looked down and saw they were wearing a pair of Heelys, the wheels of which clacked slightly as they halted. They finger-gunned in a general direction towards the room’s inhabitants.

“My pussy,” a woman behind him snapped sharply in retort as she entered the room, jaw gyrating slightly as she chewed before blowing a piece of bubblegum. It popped and she slowly resumed the cycle, but first taking a moment to brush the fronds of her white undercut away from her eyes.

The neon clad individual cringed, bringing their hands close to the sides of their head. Their sleeves sunk down, revealing the same arm band that everyone else was wearing. “You know, I’m wonderin’ what totally sick homie had to take away my censorin’ power and then pair me up with you,” they whined. “They shoulda let me keep that power. Everyone knows words like that are-”

“So help me if you say ‘unrad’ or ‘unfresh,’ I’ll pop ya in the fuckin’ nose,” the woman with the bubblegum growled, pointing aggressively at the person in the Heelys.

“But they’re like, the perfect descriptors!” they whined, pouting softly before turning to face the rest of the room. “Oh! A new face?” They bounded over to Cosmo, slinging an arm around their shoulders without a care in the world. Cosmo tensed slightly as the neon-clad person did so. Their face was a little too close for comfort. If Cosmo could see the individual strands of obviously dyed pink hair, they were too close – not to mention that the YOLO glasses were almost bumping against their cheek. “And who might you be, my funky lady?”

Cosmo lifted a finger. “Not a woman, actually,” they replied. “Not a man either, before you ask.”

“Oh, my B!” the other replied before lifting away their arm and holding both of theirs up in surrender. “Dang, I normally never assume, dunno what happened there. But I totally getcha,” the stranger reassured. “I fit in the same box. Neutral’s pretty fresh. Coincidentally, Fresh also happens ta be my name. It’s nice ta meetcha, my funky new friend! Didn’t catch your name.”

“Cosmo,” they said, trying to wrap their head around Fresh’s way of speaking. “And you?” they asked, looking over Fresh’s shoulder at the woman with the bubblegum. The more names they learned, the better.

“This lovely lady over here is Red,” Fresh supplied, smiling ear to ear. They were smacked upside the head by the woman behind them.

“Fell. You call me Red, I do to you what I did to them,” she said, jerking her chin at Fresh. She looked down at Cosmo with angry red irises. “But if you act reasonable, we’re chill. I only beat you up if you’re a bitch or a coward.”

“Language!” Fresh said dejectedly with crocodile tears in their eyes.

Fresh and Fell were assimilated into the growing group in the common room. Cosmo watched several others come through the door, one after the other, mostly in pairs. They shared similar stories of having woken up in the same room, unable to use magic because of their bracelets. A couple of them had noted they saw the void outside the front doors, but thankfully, none had fallen. Error had left the door open after he fell, so they’d probably just seen it from afar. Cosmo didn’t want to know what would happen if anyone fell.

Once Cosmo had greeted one last person through the door – a woman with a nasty scar over her eye and a couple of missing teeth by the name of Horror, who made sixteen people in the room – the door to the common room slammed shut. All conversation in the room stopped, and eyes darted to the door, then to Cosmo, who lifted their hands in surrender. “I swear I didn’t do anything.”

“Tahaha, that’s right! Oopsie doops, I locked the door. But you’ll understand why in a second.”

Cosmo and everyone else turned to the direction of the voice. In the middle of the room stood a curly haired man, several inches taller than Hearts, who was the closest to him at the moment. It was a little hard to tell where his mousy brown hair ended and his skin began for how close they were in color, but his bright blue eyes shone from underneath the bangs and Cosmo could see his face regardless. He lifted a hand, clothed in a glove the same color as his eyes, and sighed. “No guesses? I thought you would at least _try_ to figure something out.”

“Blue, what the hell are you doing?” a woman with a blind eye spoke. Cosmo had learned earlier that her name was Geno, and the blind eye wasn’t the most startling thing about her – she had a gash running diagonally across her torso, indefinitely suspended in time so it didn’t bleed but never healed. It took a moment for Cosmo to process when they first saw. “You went missing. We thought you were dead.”

That seemed to be the general consensus for everyone else, because murmurs started popping up left and right. “Yeah we thought Error strangled you with his strings or something,” a man named Dance murmured from Cosmo’s left. Dance was one of the ones Cosmo didn’t learn much about except for his name – he seemed reserved, preferring to hide under his hood where his dark skin nearly disappeared under the shadowing. 

“I fuckin’ wish I’d strangled him,” Error snapped from the side of the room. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “Unfortunately, however, I’m as clueless as the rest of you. He went missing, idiots.”

“And how do we know you weren’t the one behind that?” Dance retorted. “His universe is one of your top targets, and for the record, you-”

“Hey, hey, no fighting!” Blue interrupted. With a sigh, he continued. “Listen, this is exactly why I brought you all here. You can’t go five minutes without insulting or fighting or even distrusting one another!” Blue pouted softly and crossed his arms. “So from here on out, you will be living together here. You need to learn to get along, and this is the perfect way to do it!” Blue clapped his hands together.

A sigh came from the other side of the room. “Blue, get off your stupid soap box.” A woman whom Cosmo recognized as being the one named Nightmare glared up at Blue with a single, piercing cyan eye. Her other eye was constantly covered by a long mass of inky black hair that looked like it would simply drip off of her head at any given moment. She gestured with pale hands towards the rest of the room. “Do you really think that the people you’ve gathered here are going to go along with your little plan? This is a waste of goddamn time.”

“You know, I kinda agree,” someone next to Nightmare – a man named Ink – agreed. The very first things that Cosmo had noticed about him when he introduced himself earlier were one, the strikingly intricate vitiligo patterns across his tan skin, and two, his eyes, which changed color wildly. They currently seemed to be cycling through warm reds and browns. “I mean, as interesting as it sounds to watch everybody try to get along, it would be slow and ultimately futile,” he admitted with no reservations.

“I mean, some of us could get along,” Dream chipped in, but shrunk back after several others immediately objected to him with shouts and scoffs.

“Face it, we’ve got a room full of people who don’t trust each other,” Reaper spoke up. “Blue, how long are you intending on keeping us here?”

Blue put a finger to his chin. His other hand fiddled lightly with the bandanna around his neck, the same color as his gloves. “Well... if you’re not going to try and get along…” he mused, deep in thought, “then you’ll just have to stay here indefinitely!”

Shouts and objections ricocheted off of the walls and around the room. “How the hell are you even planning on doing that?” a woman (whose name Cosmo had figured out was Dust) said. “Even without magic, we can beat you to the ground. There’s sixteen of us, and one of you,” she snarled.

Blue snickered. “Are you sure about that?” he replied, then lifted a hand and closed it into a fist. A sharp, white-hot pain shot through Cosmo’s wrist and towards their heart, causing them to cry out in pain and fall to their knees. They looked towards the metal on their wrist, burning bright, and desperately clawed at it, trying to get it off to no avail. As they looked around, Cosmo saw that the others were in similar states of pain, some also having collapsed, but all trying to remove the bracelet.

Cosmo pushed themselves to their knees, breathing heavily. “Stop – stop this! We get it!” they cried out, looking up at Blue with a pleading gaze. After a moment, Blue dropped his hand, and the pain subsided.

“Blue,” Hearts wheezed, pushing himself to his feet, “this isn’t like you, hon. Why… why are you doing this to us?”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures! Tahaha!” Blue laughed, clapping his hands together. “But alright, I’m not that cruel. I _have_ prepared a way out for those of you who want to leave.”

“Spit it out already, then,” Killer, a man whom Cosmo had met earlier, said. “None of us have the time to waste on your stupid games.”

Blue snickered, giving Killer a dark look. “Are you sure you want to know the way out?” he asked. Ominously enough, the room fell silent.

“O-of course we want to know,” Killer replied after a moment. “Tell us. How do we get out?”

“Okay, okay. It’s a bit of a system, but the simple answer is this,” Blue said. “In order to leave, you must disrupt the peaceful, cozy, get-along environment I’ve laid out for all of you. And the best way to do that,” he paused, glancing around, “is murder.”

The room was silent for another moment. “You’re joking,” Dream said, laughing nervously. “Blue, that’s not a funny joke. That’s not like you.”

Blue huffed. “You keep saying this isn’t like me,” he muttered.

“Because it isn’t!” Dream insisted. “Come on, stop with the joke and let’s just all get out of here. We’ve got better things to be doing.”

Cosmo pursed their lips as they watched Blue carefully. They didn’t know Blue that well, but despite how optimistic everyone else seemed to be towards him, Cosmo was far from trusting him. His movements were tense, calculated, and sharp. There was no way he could be trusted. Especially not since he’d shown up, shocked them with the bracelets they’d been forcibly made to wear, and told them the only way out of this place was murder. As Cosmo continued watching, Blue’s movements as he talked became more erratic, less… hinged. “Guys, stop,” Cosmo said, but no one listened. Killer made a snide remark for them to shut up. Dream ignored them. Fell stepped directly in front of them.

Cosmo sidestepped around Fell, then spoke again, “Guys, stop!”

Then Blue’s scarf flashed red, and they all did, in fact, stop.

Blue snickered. “Okay, okay, just a little bit of backstory,” he said. Cosmo watched in fear as Blue’s entire body turned black as coal, the only bits of color remaining on his scarf and boots – bright red. Static started to swarm around his feet, rising slowly up his body until it hit his chest and half of him glitched out to the left, pieces of his body disappearing and reappearing so fast Cosmo almost didn’t catch it. When he opened his eyes, they were much different, the sclera colored a deep blue with the irises patterned with yellow and violet rings. Also on his face were yellow stars, patterned under his eyes like cheesy tattoos. Cosmo didn’t know when those had appeared, but as soon as they saw the stars, their gaze trickled down to their own wrist, where the black bracelet with the yellow stars sat.

As soon as Blue had finished his little transformation, there was an uproar. Cosmo had to cover their ears because of how loudly everyone was shouting back and forth across the room, questions of who did this to Blue and how he ended up like that being the most common, and yet… Cosmo was still taking this as a sign they shouldn’t trust him.

_Why is everyone so worried for him? He’s…_

Cosmo glanced at him and met his smiling gaze.

_He’s enjoying the chaos._

“All right, all right, you wanna figure out who did this to me so badly, huh?” Blue said, grinning gleefully. “Then allow me to use this opportunity as a demo for the trial mechanic we will be using throughout your life here!” As Blue gestured dramatically towards the fireplace, the entire building shook. The logs and the flames disappeared into the ground, and the entrance widened and sunk back into the wall. The wall split open down the middle, revealing a spacious elevator behind it. “Everyone, please proceed into the elevator!”

“Like hell!” Fell snapped. “Just tell us! We’re not cooperating with you a second longer!”

“Oh dear,” Blue tutted, lifting his hand, “I can shock you all again if you don’t cooperate. That’d be fun.”

This time, Cosmo spoke up. “Guys, we should just… do as he says. Like it or not, we don’t have much power in this situation.”

Blue gazed quizzically at Cosmo for a moment before nodding. “Yep yep! You see, those bracelets you’re wearing not only suppress your magic and shock you, but can kill if I set the voltage high enough!” he chirped. “So watch what you’re doing when you decide to go against my orders! Tahaha!” Blue spun around on his heel and leapt into the elevator.

The elevator ride down was… rowdy. Cosmo huddled in the corner, standing right next to Horror. The rest of the group spent the whole elevator ride either yelling at or agreeing with those who were yelling at Blue, demanding to be set free. Cosmo doubted that it was going to happen. Whatever they thought Blue was going to act like, clearly, he’d subverted their expectations.

Cosmo glanced over at Horror, who looked to be minding her own business. Her brown hair dangled over her unarmed eye, so when she suddenly looked over at Cosmo, they were startled by how quickly the scarred and mangled red eye trained itself on their gaze. Cosmo all too quickly realized they were staring and stammered a quick apology.

“It’s all right. You can stare,” Horror muttered in return, looking up with the same wide red eye and a curious expression, if not blankly so. “Do I freak you out?”

Cosmo bit their lower lip, not expecting Horror to dish out the hard questions first. “I… don’t think you want me to bother with the polite answer.” Horror shook her head no. “Then yeah, a little.”

Horror smiled her toothy grin with a couple of teeth missing. “Ah, it’s okay. I don’t think there’s anyone in this room not freaked out by me at least a little. They call me Horror for a reason.”

“That’s… kind of awful,” Cosmo replied, wincing as a shout from the other side of the elevator hit their ears. “You were named Horror? For your appearance?”

Horror shrugged. “Kind of. It was fewer syllables than Freakshow.” She laughed, a sort of chittery giggle that would have put Cosmo on edge if not for how harmlessly amused she looked. Her expression turned more serious and she hummed softly. “Now, my real question,” she said, leaning and turning her head so her hair obscured her eyes. Her arm lifted, shoulder rising as she softly pointed at the center of the elevator. Cosmo followed her finger until their gaze landed on Blue. “Who freaks you out more – me, or him?”

Cosmo pursed their lips for a moment. “…Him,” they decided.

Horror cackled. “I knew you were smart too,” she cooed, leaning in towards Cosmo in a friendly manner. Cosmo leaned back anyways, though more for personal space. “All the others, the way they know him… he’s charming, dashing, selfless. Of course,” Horror giggled, putting a finger to her lips, “I know better than to trust people. It looks like you do too.”

Cosmo frowned, ready to reply that that wasn’t exactly the case, but then Horror pointed her finger to the other corner of the elevator to their right. “He knows better too.” Standing in the corner was Dance, hood drawn up over his head. Cosmo could just make out his eyes, distrustfully trained on Blue’s movements.

“Blue mentioned a trial,” Cosmo said cautiously. “As in... deciding whether or not someone is guilty of something. The way he said it implied we’d be doing this more than once – often, even.” They glanced back to Horror.

She raised a brow. “Don’t look at me for the answers. All I know is who to not trust,” she muttered.

Over all the shouting, Cosmo barely heard the ding of the elevator as it reached the bottom. The doors of the elevator opened, and once people started to file out, Cosmo could see the room in front of them. Spacious with a high ceiling, it looked like it was modeled after some sort of courtroom, but it looked a bit different from your average one. First of all, no furniture existed outside of two structures near the middle. One of them was a large, elevated chair, almost like a throne, and in front of it sat the other one, a ring of podiums, all facing inwards towards the center.

“All right, all right, I know you all have complaints, but here’s the good news!” Blue shouted over all the noise, prancing over to the throne and hopping up in the seat. He swung a leg over the arm rest on the left, leaning back onto the one on the right. “I don’t take criticism! Now, find your podiums – they’re labeled – and let’s begin!”

Cosmo quickly found the podium with their name on it and stepped up to it, gripping the wooden railing with slightly unsteady hands. They glanced upwards at Blue, sitting on the elevated throne directly across from them. Blue grinned down at them, taking a moment before clearing his throat and waiting for the commotion to die down.

“Can everyone just shut up?!?” Cosmo turned their head to see who’d finally spoken up as the noise started to fade – it was Geno, who looked rather pained and anxious from across the ring – though Cosmo wasn’t sure if she just looked that way normally or not. “We’re not going to get this over with unless you guys stop being so argumentative for _once._ ”

“Like it or not, she’s right,” Nightmare supported from her position at the podium to Cosmo’s right. “As much as I’m enjoying being hand-fed your fear and anger, it’s not much use to me with our current-” she glanced down at her wrist, lifting it slightly to examine her bracelet, “-situation. I’d like this to be over with as well.”

“Thank you, Nightmare,” Geno said, a little bewildered but ultimately deciding not to question the fact that Nightmare had agreed. “But, uh, yeah. What she said.”

“So what I’m hearing is,” spoke a man that Cosmo hadn’t actually gotten to talk to yet (though they had heard his name was Classic,) “that we have to stop arguing with Blue and listen to him because we won’t get this over with otherwise? Or get out otherwise?”

“Yup!” Blue decided to interject at that moment. “Because the only way to get out is to win a group trial, and we’re about to have one!”

“Great!” Fell interjected. “Then let’s fucking do it!”

“Come on, you haven’t even heard the rules,” Blue whined, moving his legs back to the front of the throne and leaning forward, elbows on his knees and chin in his hands. “Let me at least tell you them first.”

“Well, go on,” Dance muttered from his spot at a podium two to the left of where Cosmo stood. “We’re all ears.”

Blue clapped his hands together again. “Okay! Here’s how a group trial works,” he started. “In order to escape this place, you have to murder someone else. That’s the easy part. Slashing, stabbing, bludgeoning, strangling, drowning, doesn’t matter how, you just have to make sure their heart isn’t beating by the end of it!”

Cosmo winced. “Gruesome description aside, you’ve already established that,” they said.

“Yeah, yeah.” Blue waved a dismissive hand. “The aftermath, though, is the exciting part. Once a murder has occurred, you will all be given a certain amount of time to conduct your own little investigations into the murder, the corpse, et cetera,” Blue explained. “Once that time is up, you will come here to this courtroom, where the group trial will begin. In the group trial, our murderer will face off against the everyone else. The rest of you, your job is to sniff out the killer and vote for them as guilty! Murderer, your job will be to stay hidden. If everyone else votes for the wrong person, you win and you get to go free! As penance for getting it wrong, the remaining individuals will undergo a special punishment. However, if they get it right, you lose, and you’ll undergo the punishment instead!” Blue finished and stared down at the ring of podiums expectantly. “Make sense?”

“It makes sense, but if we’re about to have a group trial, and no one’s murdered anyone, who’s going to be the culprit?” Dream spoke up. “Who are we looking for?”

“Right right,” Blue said. “You wanted to know how I became a glitch, didn’t you? Well, here’s your answer. Someone in this room did this to me, and you’re going to have to figure out who they are. Debate among yourselves, vote, and we’ll see if you get it right! Hop to it!”

The room was quiet for a moment before Reaper spoke up. “Well, that one’s obvious, isn’t it?” she said, then pointed at Error. “He’s the one who did it.”

Error scoffed. “Really? Blaming me first _again?_ Real mature,” he sneered.

“You’re talking about _maturity?_ ” Hearts exclaimed. “Look in the mirror, you hypocrite!”

Ignoring Hearts’ comment, Error spoke again, “If you’re so sure it’s me, prove it! I’m telling you, I did nothing to that stupid blueberry. He probably glitched himself out on purpose.”

“Stop denyin’ it, it’s obvious!” Fell snapped. “You’re the only one who _could_ have. None of the rest of us know anythin’ about glitches and shit, only that you’re one too and that you have magic related to it. What if bein’ a glitch is like a disease? Maybe you spread it to him.”

“Hold on,” Cosmo spoke up. All eyes in the court turned to them, and they gulped. “How do we know that he’s the only one who could have? Visually, their glitching patterns look similar, but aren’t you guys just making a false correlation?”

Killer scoffed. “Is anyone gonna fill the newbie in?”

“What?” Cosmo replied. “Hey, listen, just because I don’t know the rest of you guys or – or your whole multiverse thing – doesn’t mean I don’t know anything at all!”

“Sweetpea, you didn’t even believe that Error was a world destroyer,” Hearts said.

“Well, yeah, the magic of one person can’t possibly…” Cosmo trailed off, watching everyone’s expressions shift. “Come on, this isn’t some mass delusion, is it?”

“Delusion?” Dance snapped. “Oh no, you’re not telling me that all his destruction is a delusion just because you’re new and can’t wrap your head around it.”

“Hip-hop, my bro, don’t take it all personally,” Fresh tried to ease him, glancing to their left and right between Cosmo and Dance, whose podiums they were coincidentally sat between. “You were off-grid at one point, too. Actin’ like a whole jerk-face won’t help ‘em learn about the multiverse ‘n all that shiz.”

“Don’t take it personally?” Dance said through gritted teeth. “I’m a goddamn refugee from Error’s destruction, I’ll take statements of my supposed delusion as personally as I like. I say we vote for Error and get this over with so I can-”

“What, you wanna wrestle with the greenie?” Cross said. “You ain’t hot shit or even only _justified_ just ‘cause you lost your timeline. Boo hoo, I’m traumatized and I’m taking it out on a poor off-grid kid because they’re acting stupid.”

“Do you wanna get punched too?” Dance threatened.

“Stop fighting, you idiots!” Reaper hissed. “Cosmo, I’m sorry, but you’re just dead wrong. Error’s a glorified three-year-old given the destructive power of fifteen atom bombs and the freedom to use them over and over again however he pleases.”

“I take offense to that,” Error interrupted. “I’m more powerful than fifteen atom bombs, thank you very much.”

“No you’re not,” Ink scoffed from a few podiums to Error’s left. “Reaper was exaggerating.”

Error gripped his podium, leaning in and sneering at Ink, “That was sarcasm, you stupid piece of shit.”

“In _any_ case, Error is literally the only one with glitchy destruction powers among the rest of us,” Dream said, “so I’m inclined to also believe that it’s him.”

“It’s not me,” Error grumbled. “Cosmo might be an idiot, but they’re also right. I have no idea what happened to the stupid blueberry after I left him.”

“Left him?” Dust spoke up. “What do you mean, left him? You were with him before now?”

“I told you, Error was the one who fuckin’ kidnapped him!” Fell interjected. “Right when he went missing, I told you, Error had something to do with it! Didn’t I, Lust?”

Hearts cringed. “Hearts,” he corrected, sighing in irritation, “but yes, you did.”

“Yes, fine, I was the one who kidnapped him. But I have no clue how he turned into a glitch. I left him in the antivoid and that was that!” Error snapped. He paused. His eyes widened. “Oh. I left him in the antivoid.”

“The antivoid?” Cosmo interrupted. “What’s the antivoid?”

“A glitched out pocket dimension,” Ink answered while Error seemed to be staring at his hands and having an existential crisis. “It’s Error’s home! I think. His fashion choices always make me think he’s homeless.”

“Oh, would you shut up?” Error said, then sighed. “God, you’ve got to be kidding me. Did you seriously become even _more_ of a filthy glitch just because I left you in the antivoid?” he said, glancing upwards at Blue.

Blue giggled. “Did I or didn’t I? You have to vote and see!” he exclaimed. “That being said, _are_ you all ready to vote?”

“I mean, it’s obvious now, isn’t it?” Nightmare said. “Yes, we’re ready.”

“Hooray! Now if you’ll all look down at your podiums, I’ve prepared a little device for each of you! Clipped to the railings is a tablet that I want you all to take – you will use that tablet in your daily life here and it is extremely important, so don’t you lose it! Also don’t try to break it, because as much as you’d like to believe that’s possible, I’ve built it so that it’s nearly impossible to do so without magic. Which none of you have.” Blue smiled. “Now, you’ll also vote for the outcome of this trial on there at this moment in time. Go on, vote!”

Cosmo looked down at their podium and took the tablet, detaching it from the railing before picking it up. The screen lit up with little tiles with everyone’s faces on it, and at the top in bright, gaudy letters, it read `Cast Your Vote’. Cosmo’s head swam. They were just… supposed to pick Error? Were they sure it was him who did it? He seemed to admit doing it, but was that all there was to it? It seemed… much too simple.

Cosmo took a breath and then pressed Error’s face.

“The votes are in!” Blue announced. “Ooh, it’s unanimous! That’s always a fun vote. Especially if it’s wrong.” Blue giggled raucously.

“Were we wrong?” Cosmo asked.

“Hm? Oh, no, you got it completely right,” Blue said. “It was Error’s fault! He’s the whole reason why I’m so glitchy.” Blue held up a hand, swarming with static. “But, bad news for Error! You lost the group trial! You’ve been found guilty!”

“Huh?” Error said. “Oh yeah, I have to endure your ‘special punishment’ or whatever.” He looked a bit uneasy at the prospect, but for the most part kept his cool.

“Oh, that’s right!” Blue said, “I haven’t even told you what it is yet! The very special punishment…” he paused for effect, “is brutal execution.”

The room was silent. Cosmo felt their heart drop. A little bit to their right, Classic spoke up. “Wait, hold on. You didn’t tell us we’d be voting for someone’s death.”

“Tahaha! Well, if you hadn’t, you’d essentially be voting for your own demises! Remember, if you had voted wrong, you’d all be punished instead,” Blue reminded him. “Or at least, you would be if this wasn’t a practice trial!”

“Practice trial?” Error blurted.

“Yep! Consider your skin saved,” Blue chirped. “In any case, trial dismissed! You’re all free to go! Back up the elevator, explore the rest of the place as you like! Make sure to take your tablets with you. There will be an evening announcement at 10PM. Ta-ta!”

Cosmo watched in mild horror as Blue’s body contorted and glitched out of existence. Slowly, they looked across the court to Error, who was tightly gripping the front of his own shirt and avoiding the gazes of those around him. Cosmo didn’t blame him – the stares of fifteen other people were bound to be intimidating. Especially fifteen people who almost murdered you.

“We should – we should all head upstairs,” Dream spoke. “There’s a cafeteria and fully stocked kitchen up there. We woke up after being passed out for a while and have no clue what time it is now or when we last ate, so it’s probably be a good idea to have some sort of meal.”

“What if it’s poison or something?” Reaper said. “We can’t trust anything here, okay? As much as Error probably deserves to die, we almost killed him ourselves just now. Unwittingly. And I know I reap souls and stuff, but I don’t decide when they die. No one should ever have that power.” She crossed her arms.

“Oh, so I deserve to die?” Error sneered.

“Did you even listen to me? I defended your right to not be murdered, asshole.”

“Ethics of our situation aside,” Nightmare huffed, “The food is probably safe. Blue – or whatever monster the glitching has turned him into – wants us to kill each other, not die of our own accord.”

“You think the glitching is what’s making him act like that?” Killer asked.

“Hell if I know, but it sounds like it could be possible,” Classic mused. “In any case, what Nightmare said makes sense. The food is probably safe.”

“So, breakfast? Dinner?” Fresh suggested. “What time is it, anyhow?”

“The tablets say it’s about eight PM,” Horror said. “Poison or not, I’m going to eat. Anyone who wants me to cook for them too should follow me.” With that, she slipped her tablet into her pocket and went back to the elevator. Eventually, everyone else followed suit, save for Cosmo, Hearts, and Error.

Hearts was halfway to the elevator before he turned around, glancing between Cosmo and Error. Error was gripping the podium still, staring down at his tablet with a blank expression, while Cosmo was a little more awake. “Are you coming?” Hearts asked. “I doubt Horror will wait if you want food.”

“Uh,” Cosmo stalled for a moment, “Actually just go ahead. Tell her I’ll take the next elevator up and I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Why not just come with us?” Hearts said before biting his lip and taking another glance at Error. In a lower voice so that only Cosmo could hear, he added, “I don’t think talking to him alone is a good idea.”

“It’ll only be a second. What’s the worst that could happen?” Cosmo replied at the same volume.

Hearts frowned. “He could… I don’t know. He has no magic, but still.” He folded his arms. “He could hurt you.”

“And that’s why I’m going to talk to him. Because the rest of you don’t want to,” Cosmo said. “I’m not scared of him like you guys are. Thank you for the concern, really, but I’ll be all right. And if I turn up dead, well. You’ll know who to vote for at the trial.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Hearts muttered softly.

Cosmo shook their head. “Hearts, I’ll be all right. Go tell Horror I’m taking the next elevator.”

Hearts took one last look at Cosmo and Error before moving to the elevator. The doors slid shut as he entered, and Cosmo was left alone with Error.

“…Hey, Error?” Cosmo spoke softly. Error didn’t acknowledge them. “Error.”

“What do you want?” Error snapped at them.

“Are you okay?” they asked.

Error looked bewildered. “What? Why the fuck do you care?”

“B- what? Why do I _care?_ ” Cosmo asked. “It’s called being a decent human being, for starters. Like, you’re weird and I don’t entirely understand you, but I don’t want so see you scared or hurt.”

“I’ve killed people before,” Error said, not looking away from Cosmo’s gaze. “I destroy entire universes filled with hundreds upon thousands of people on a daily basis. You _just_ learned this. Aren’t you terrified? Don’t you hate me?”

“No, I don’t. Do you _want_ me to?” Cosmo asked.

Error hesitated for a split second before answering, “You should.”

“And Blue says we should kill each other to escape this place. I’m beginning to think that maybe the way you guys glitch messes with your head a little.”

Error pursed his lips. “I don’t think that’s Blue.”

Cosmo blinked. “Sorry, what?”

“Blue. I _know_ Blue. I’m saying that’s not him,” Error said. “He’s glitched out even more now, but I know for almost _certain_ that it’s not him. He’s some sort of fake – like a doppelganger.”

“Wait, how do you know this?” Cosmo asked. “How can you tell?”

“I can’t say for certain, but there’s something that I have to take a closer look at,” Error muttered. “It probably doesn’t matter to you, though. You didn’t know who he was beforehand.”

“Ah, yeah, that’s right,” Cosmo said. “But still, if he’s a fake, then maybe we could find a weakness or something.”

“ _We_ aren’t doing anything,” Error corrected, expression suddenly turning sour again. “We’re officially enemies, you got that? Even if we weren’t before, we are now. It’s stupid to trust anyone when we’re being forced to kill each other.” He huffed and rolled his eyes, then grabbed his tablet and started to head to the elevator.

Cosmo followed. “But – if we don’t work together, then-”

“Then I look out for myself and keep myself alive,” Error cut them off, walking in the elevator as the doors opened with a soft ‘ding’. He turned around. “Also. You’re taking the next elevator.”

“But I told Horror I would-”

The elevator doors shut.

Cosmo eventually made it back up and found the cafeteria after a mild amount of searching for it. It was located through the left archway as they came out of the common room, and they’d seen it before, but somehow it took them a bit to find. Horror was mildly pissed at Cosmo for being late but forgave them once they explained what had happened with Error. They were handed a plate with a generous serving of lasagna on it, and their mouth started to water.

They all ate in mostly silence – no one wanted to have any sort of conversation – and by the time they had finished eating, everyone else besides Horror had left. Cosmo briefly brushed past her in the kitchen as they went to clean their plate, but no words were exchanged except for a few ‘excuse me’s as they passed each other.

Cosmo exited the cafeteria, crossed the foyer, and entered the hall with their bedrooms. They eventually found their own room – a neat wooden door with a plaque attached to the middle of it, reading their name. Trying the knob, they opened it and found it unlocked, so they entered and closed the door behind them.

It really did look like a hotel room, with a somewhat comfy-looking double bed, a dresser, a closet, a lamp, and another door near the back that looked like it led to a bathroom. There was a table and chair as well, and there looked to be something set on the table, so Cosmo went to look. It was a key with a tag attached to it – reading Cosmo’s name – and a note was set below it. The note was for Blue, explaining that this was the key to their room and that they shouldn’t lose it because it was the only copy. It also said a bunch of stuff about being careful to lock the door at night and how they shouldn’t lend their key to anyone, but Cosmo skimmed that stuff before crumpling up the note and tossing it in the wastebin below the table. Cosmo tucked the key in their jacket pocket before heading over to the bed and collapsing on top of it face-down. They laid there for a moment and then rolled over onto their back, letting out a sigh.

They’d barely had a moment to think until now. Sure, there was the time alone in the elevator, but mainly they were thinking about how hungry they’d been and what kind of food Horror had made. Now that their looming hunger was out of the way, though, the path was clear for other thoughts to make their way in.

First of all, multiverse theory was _real._ All these people here were technically alternates of Cosmo themselves, but only… loosely? They were pretty much different people. Error, the oddball man who visited Stardin sometimes and shouted at the constellations, was a world destroyer. A murderer. For real. Sure, he still probably needed a psychiatrist, but not for schizophrenia or psychosis.

And then they were kidnapped, forced to live in this… pocket dimension, and if they wanted to leave, they had to murder someone. Not just murder someone, but cover it up and get away with it in a trial. It was nothing short of monstrous. Horrible. Inhumane. Cosmo wasn’t sure if anyone would actually do it. If someone did, could they even find out who did it once they had to debate it in a trial? And on top of that, what if they were targeted for murder? They didn’t like that thought.

A knock on the door stirred Cosmo from their thoughts, and they went to go open it. Just outside stood Fell, hands in the pockets of her coat. “Got a second?” she asked.

Cosmo blinked and then nodded. “Uh, sure. Come on in.”

“Thanks,” Fell said as she walked in. The door closed behind her, and she looked up at Cosmo – who’d closed it. “Why did you do that?”

Cosmo stammered, “Uh – let you in, or close the door?”

“Both, I guess,” Fell said, scratching her head. “It’s kinda also what I wanted to talk to you about. You can’t trust anyone here. Not even me.”

“I mean, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt,” Cosmo said. “I don’t want to live here suspicious of everyone.”

“Yeah but listen, kid. You have a huge – and I mean _huge –_ disadvantage compared to literally everyone else here,” Fell said. She leaned back against the edge of the table. “You’re totally new. Completely off-grid, as we say – totally unaware of the existence of other universes and confined to your own. You don’t know anyone here.”

“I mean, I knew Error beforehand,” Cosmo said. “He visited my town sometimes.”

“And yet you tried to argue at the trial that he wasn’t a world destroyer?” Fell chuckled. “Seriously.”

“Okay, I was wrong, I know that now,” Cosmo said.

“Yes, but let me ask you this,” Fell said. “How many people, out of the fifteen of us, do you think have killed someone?”

Cosmo gulped. “Uh, I would hope none, but I guess counting Error, that makes one,” Cosmo said.

“Way too optimistic. Including Error, I can confirm nine,” Fell said. “That also includes me, kid. You just invited a murderer into your bedroom and closed the door.” As soon as Fell revealed that, Cosmo felt sick. They took a step away from her, and she laughed. “Sorry, I can’t help it. I know it’s morbid for you, but the sudden change once you knew what kind of person I really was…” She shook her head, the laughter calming down after a moment. “I just wanted to warn you. Watch your back. You might get stabbed.” With that, she pushed herself off the table and headed to the bedroom door. She then spun on her heel and pointed at Cosmo real quick, “Oh, and you got your room key, right?”

Cosmo lifted it out of their pocket. “Yeah.”

“Blue left a note about not losing that. I would take the advice. Not locking your door could result in a slit throat.” At Cosmo’s sickened look, she shrugged. “Hey, just being honest.”

A chime echoed throughout the area, and a voice came over the loudspeaker. “Attention! It is now ten PM, and the nighttime period has officially begun. Nighttime is from ten PM to eight AM, and while you are not required to sleep, be aware that the cafeteria and kitchen are off-limits during nighttime hours! Also, sleeping anywhere but the bedrooms is strictly prohibited. Good night and sweet dreams!”

The loudspeaker clicked off and Blue’s voice vanished. Cosmo glanced to their door and saw that it was shut and that Fell had left. Slowly, they approached the door and locked it. After that, they tucked the key in their jacket again and climbed in bed. They didn’t bother with any nighttime routines or bother to look for pajamas. Maybe they’d do that sort of stuff tomorrow night.

_If I’m alive tomorrow night._

Cosmo shook the thought away and closed their eyes. Soon, they fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 1 - Daily Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: The end of this chapter contains a (drawn cartoon) visual of a dead body with (hot pink) blood, traditional Danganronpa style. It is meant as a supplement to the story, and has been pasted directly alongside the text. You have been warned. (Art is drawn by myself.) Other warnings for this chapter include talk of cannibalism, eating disorders, and trauma around food.
> 
> HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to my friend [Allu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fellusion) for proofreading both this chapter and the previous one! He's been such a tremendous help from listening to me ramble about this fic to straight up giving me ideas for it, especially when it comes to this first murder-trial arc (and the second - as I type this we've just finished talking about what's going to happen there). Seriously, I wouldn't even have the victim and killer chosen without him. Please go support him in turn! His works are super awesome and I love him to bits.
> 
> Also! Nearly immediately after the publication of the last chapter, I [illustrated the entire cast in order by height.](https://gallifreyan-pal.tumblr.com/post/622985479292420096/fully-illustrated-cast-from-my-utmvdanganronpa) It's not mandatory to take a look, but I had fun with the designs! Some are super close to their canon counterparts, others are different. And remember, they're all humanizations, so that's new.

_Click._

“Gooooood morning everyone! It is now eight AM and nighttime is officially over. Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another _beautiful_ day!”

Cosmo blinked their groggy eyes open and yawned as the PA system clicked again and turned off. Despite getting a largely reasonable amount of sleep, they felt exhausted. Their emotional state didn’t help that fact. Sometime in the middle of the night, they’d woken up in a panic from a nightmare of being stabbed. Following that, they’d spent a good ten minutes curled up in bed, crying until they were too exhausted to do so anymore and fell right back asleep.

Now, however, Cosmo reached up to wipe the dried tears and other gunk away from the corners of their eyes. They blinked, slightly more refreshed, and looked down at their clothes. They felt kind of gross and uncomfortable from sleeping in a pair of jeans and their jacket. A shower was probably in order. They glanced to the closet, then pushed themselves off of their bed to check what kind of clothes were in there.

“That’s creepy,” Cosmo muttered to themselves after opening the closet door and staring for a solid minute at the neat rack of jackets and shirts completely identical to their own. On shelves below were stacks of the exact same pair of jeans they were wearing, and below that were several pairs of identical pajamas. In drawers at the very bottom were socks and underwear. Cosmo grabbed a fresh change of clothes and went to the bathroom to shower.

Just as they’d finished their shower and were stepping out to dry themselves off with a towel, Cosmo heard a knock at the door of their room. “Just a second!” they called, twisting the towel around their head and hair before quickly throwing on their clean clothes. They threw the dirty ones in a small hamper they’d found in a closet before heading to the front door of their room and opening it a smidge. They found them staring downwards at someone incredibly short – Ink, the man with a side shave and pale vitiligo across bronze colored skin. He smiled up at Cosmo, eyes shifting between bright yellows before smoothly transitioning to warm greens.

“Wow! You look like shit,” Ink said. Apparently, he also had no filter.

“Rough night,” Cosmo muttered in reply. “You-” they paused, remembering what Fell had told them about trusting people. They bit their lower lip and stopped themselves from just inviting him right in, despite how they seriously doubted a man that short could do any lasting harm. “What are you here for?”

Ink pursed his lips, then looked down at the ground. “I forgot, actually,” he said dejectedly. “Oh well. I’ll probably remember in an hour. See you at breakfast!” Ink gave a little wave, then turned to leave down the hall.

“Wait, breakfast?” Cosmo called out after him. They glanced behind them at the room key and tablet they’d left sitting on the table, then quickly grabbed them both and left their room, locking it behind them and running after Ink. “Ink, wait! What do you mean? Are we all having breakfast together?”

“Uh, yeah!” Ink replied, sounding a little peeved. “Horror said we should, just so we can keep track of everybody. Didn’t you know?”

“No, I didn’t,” Cosmo said, finally catching up to Ink’s side. “By any chance, is that what you were going to tell me?”

Ink put a finger to his chin. “Oh yeah! That’s totally what I was going to say. My bad!” he chirped, then continued to sway his arms as he sauntered down the hall.

Cosmo followed him down towards the foyer, and only when they reached it did they realize the towel from their shower was still wrapped around their hair. They un-twisted it and ruffled their hair with it to dry, then folded the towel as they walked and tucked it under their arm. They started to pick out any leftover tangles with their fingers as they followed Ink across the foyer and through the other archway.

Despite Ink’s shoddy memory, he seemed to know where he was going. Cosmo hoped they weren’t making a mistake by trusting his sense of direction. If worse came to worse, they at least had been to the cafeteria last night, so they could gently poke him in the right direction. The hallway wasn’t too long, however - it was certainly wide, with a couple other doors on the sides, but it ended rather abruptly with a set of swinging double doors. Cosmo could hear murmurs coming from inside before Ink pushed the doors open with a bit of flair to reveal the cafeteria – and the other fourteen people stuck in this building with them. Despite what Ink had professed, none of them looked like they were ready for breakfast in the slightest. No plates, no food – just fourteen disgruntled people sitting around a long table.

“Finally,” Dust blurted. “Is that everyone?” she asked, glancing left and right.

Ink placed a finger to his chin. “Finally? What do you mean?”

Dust grit her teeth. “You’ve been gone for half an hour.”

Ink’s eyes widened. “Really? Wow, time flies,” he commented, lacing his fingers together and placing his hands behind his head. “I did what you asked as fast as I could, though! It’s not my fault the dorms are so easy to get lost in!”

Cosmo pressed their lips into a flat line and approached the table nervously, taking an open seat between Cross and Dream – which Cross looked eternally thankful for while Dream looked awkwardly disappointed. “Ink told me we were having breakfast together?” Cosmo muttered tentatively, looking left and right at both Dream and Cross as the others started the chatter in the background.

“Of course he would leave out the most important part,” Cross huffed.

“He’s got short term memory loss,” Dream explained. “You should give him a little bit of a break, Cross.”

“You should give him a little bit of a break,” Cross mocked right back at him in a high-pitched imitation. She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “I’d give him more of a break if he didn’t forget things _all_ the time.”

“That’s… that’s what short term memory loss is,” Dream said, dumbfounded. He then spoke up a bit clearer, “Anyways, Ink was supposed to bring you here so we could all talk about what we’re going to do. Breakfast too, but mostly a group discussion. I thought it would be a good idea.”

“ _You_ thought it would be a good idea? Hmph. Haven’t heard that about something I came up with in a long while,” Cross replied.

Dream grit his teeth. “Yes, I can agree with you sometimes. Shocker.”

Cosmo wrung their hands together awkwardly. “So… group meeting. What exactly are we going to talk about?”

“That’s what I’m wondering!” Ink piped up.

“We already told you,” Reaper sighed, lifting a finger to her temple, “but I’ll say it again for Cosmo’s sake. We want to talk about how best to survive this place. You know. To make sure no one gets murdered.”

The word ‘murder’ hung in the air like a foreboding storm cloud. Finally, Fell spoke up. “Some of us were thinking about setting up a curfew at the time Blue says the 10pm alarm. If we all agree not to be out at night, then we can decrease the likelihood of someone getting murdered. We all have keys, we can lock the bedroom doors. The cafeteria and kitchen will be closed, and we’ll have any other necessities in our rooms.”

“And you’re assuming all of us want to agree to that?” Killer countered and then laughed. Cosmo felt themselves shrink back. “Some of us are willing to do whatever it takes to get out of here, I hope you know. You should know, actually, miss _fell-verse._ ”

“Don’t make assumptions,” Fell quickly snapped in reply. “Also, can we all agree to use or explain terminology so that Cosmo here can understand, too? I think they’d appreciate it.”

Cosmo felt their cheeks heat up in embarrassment as gazes turned on them. “I – I mean, yeah, that’d be helpful.”

“So is that an invitation for me to explain your hypocrisy?” Killer said. “Because I’d be more than happy to-”

“I get it, I’ve killed people to survive, you think I’m gonna go chop chop murder to get out of here,” Fell hissed. “But listen for a moment. A lot of us have killed people, for various reasons.” Cosmo waited for someone to contradict her, but… no one did. It must really be true, then. Their heart sank a little as they were forced to accept that they sat in a cafeteria with several murderers. “But that doesn’t mean we should encourage it now.”

Error snorted. “You’re trying to take a moral high ground?”

“No, I’m trying to save my own skin, too,” Fell said. “Didn’t you listen to anything Blue said? He said that if we get it wrong in a trial, we’re all dead meat. And I’d rather prevent a murder than risk the following mystery.”

“So you’re doubtin’ our collective ability to figure out whodunnit in case of a nasty homie-cide?” Fresh asked.

Fell grit her teeth. “Say homie-cide again and I’ll forget my proposition and commit one on you immediately.”

Fresh frowned and straightened their glasses. “Not cool, dawg.”

Fell sighed and continued. “Regardless, I’m pretty sure most of us will want to sleep at night. If a murder happens at night, the murderer could have plenty of time to dispose of the body and any incriminating evidence without anyone running into them. We could wake up in the morning to a clean corpse with no prints, no blood, no murder weapons, and no way to narrow it down through alibi.”

“She makes a very good point,” Classic spoke up. “Regardless of who wants to murder someone and who wants to get out of here, we need to guarantee that a murder doesn’t happen at night.”

“Because those of us who are willing to do whatever it takes to get out will be in a tough situation if someone gets to it before us,” Dust chipped in.

“We’re aiming for no murder altogether,” Geno reminded her with a glare.

“ _You_ are,” Dust muttered back at her.

“I still don’t think it’s a good idea,” Cross huffed. “Something tells me that twenty four hours from now, we’ll be cleaning up a corpse because two people were alone at night and the rest of us were asleep.”

“Then let’s put it to a vote,” Hearts piped up. “All in favor of curfew?” Everyone but Cross, Error, and Killer raised their hands. “Great. That’s a majority.”

“Fine, curfew it is,” Cross grumbled. “What else are we doing? Buddy system? Roll call?”

“Coincidentally, I think roll call would be a great idea,” Nightmare spoke coolly. “I suggest we meet here in the dining hall every morning after nighttime ends at eight. That way we can swiftly conclude if anyone is missing.” Cross narrowed her eyes and Nightmare gave a smug smile.

“So curfew and morning roll call. All in favor?” Hearts again asked, and only the same three people refrained from voting in favor. “Perfect. Now if that’s it, then I think we can…” he trailed off, gaze wandering to an empty seat between Ink and Fresh. “Did Horror already leave?”

“Oh yeah!” Ink piped up. “She told me to tell you when you were done loudly talking over one another that she was gonna go make food! But I forgot. Except I remembered now!” Ink beamed. “Oh and she said she didn’t care what you guys decided as long as she gets full control of the kitchen.” Ink put a finger to his chin. “I believe she also mentioned something about corpse soup. Or maybe that was a joke. She kind of laughed, so I think it was!”

“Crazy cannibal,” Dance mumbled, and Cosmo felt another large mass of fear grow in the pit of their stomach.

“Okay, but are we sure she’s in the kitchen?” Hearts mumbled, and Cosmo took the opportunity to swiftly stand from their seat.

“I’ll go check,” they offered, then without waiting for a response, left for the kitchen.

Cosmo gently pushed open the door to the kitchen, poking their head in. A rather sweet aroma and the sound of sizzling filled their senses. “Horror? Are you in here?” they asked before hearing a clatter over by the stove. Horror was there, holding a couple of plates on one arm and a spatula in the other. She hurriedly set the plates down and pointed the spatula threateningly at Cosmo.

“You-” she hissed at first, then paused, calmed herself, lowered the spatula, and took a deep breath. “Sorry. Hey. Pancakes,” she said, gesturing to the griddle pan on the stove. Cosmo approached cautiously, to which Horror tensed. They stopped in their tracks and held up their hands in surrender. Horror sighed, turned down the heat on the griddle, and set down the spatula. “No, it’s okay, you can come closer. Sorry. I have a… food… problem,” she muttered reluctantly before taking the spatula once more and lifting a set of perfectly cooked pancakes off of the griddle and onto a plate. “You were late last night, so you didn’t see me herding everyone out of the kitchen as I cooked.”

“You cooked for yourself and fifteen other people all by yourself last night?” Cosmo asked, amazed.

“I had more than enough food,” she reassured them. “This kitchen is completely stocked. It restocked this morning actually. The ingredients from last night are completely replaced.”

“Well, okay, but that’s not quite what I meant,” Cosmo said, leaning against a counter. “I meant that’s like… a lot of work for one person.”

Horror looked confused for a moment. “Cooking isn’t work,” she said. “Cooking means you have food, real food.” Carefully, she poured spoonfuls of pancake batter onto the griddle. “And that you’re about to have a real meal. If the food is something small, you don’t bother cooking it. But if you have something nice, you cook it.”

Cosmo was fairly sure that wasn’t how all food worked, but didn’t comment. “I mean – okay, it takes a lot of energy to cook and a lot of time. Wouldn’t it be easier to have someone help?”

Horror’s grip tightened on the spatula. “Nah. I don’t want anyone near the food as I’m cooking it. That way I can supervise what goes in it.”

Cosmo nodded slowly. From what she’d been telling them, Cosmo could infer the kinds of things that Horror was afraid of. Or at least some of them. They wanted to ask more, but they felt it’d be a little invasive and simply pursed their lips in thought. “Is there any way I _can_ help?”

Horror blinked in surprise for a moment. “Oh. Well…” she trailed off, thinking for a moment, “I need some more pancake mix, but…”

“They come in sealed bags, right? I won’t open it,” Cosmo said. “No touching the mix inside whatsoever. You want me to go get it for you?”

Horror smiled gratefully. “Yeah. Thanks, Cosmo.”

Cosmo maneuvered around to the pantry at the back of the kitchen. Inside was a wide array of shelves, filled to the brim with non-perishable items. And this was only part of the kitchen. In the room they’d come from, there were drawers and cupboards and several refrigerators that they could only assume held fresh produce and other types of food. Next to the pantry, there was also a door that looked like it led to a walk-in freezer.

“Looks like Blue planned for us to stay here for a long time,” Cosmo muttered as they pulled the bag of mix off of the shelf.

“Well, someone sure did!”

Cosmo nearly dropped the bag of mix they were holding and shrieked as they turned around and looked up to see Blue’s smiling face just inches away from their own. They backed up and their shoulder blades bumped harshly into the shelf behind them. They winced in pain before speaking up. “Blue. How did you get here? I – you didn’t come through the pantry door.”

“Nope, I didn’t!” Blue affirmed. “You didn’t think that I’d be magic-less too, though, did you?”

“…Not really, but I sort of…” they trailed off, “assumed.” They glanced back up. “What did you mean just then, though? About how ‘someone sure did’?”

Blue smiled and brushed a dark curl of hair behind his ear. “Oh, dear. Didn’t you already know?” he said incredulously. “I’m not the true mastermind behind this whole thing! I just went along to help. I’m the…” he put a finger to his bottom lip, “figurehead, so to speak.”

Cosmo frowned. “What are you saying? You’re working with someone? Who?”

Blue waggled a finger. “That’s a secret! I’m not supposed to _saaay_ anything,” he taunted, moving to clasp his hands behind his back and lean forward with a teasing grin. “Well, I’m supposed to say a few things, but not give it away completely. That would ruin quite a few things.”

“Well, what _are_ you supposed to tell me?” Cosmo asked. Their voice trembled slightly and they snapped their mouth shut, swallowing hard to calm themselves. “I – I have pancake mix to deliver,” they finished, trying to sound annoyed but instead sounding weak and afraid.

Blue snickered. Cosmo found that they disliked that sound a lot. “Well, you see, I’ve been sent to tell you that, in fact, the mastermind you’re looking for…” he trailed off, grinning in delight, “is hidden somewhere inside this building. And lucky you, you’re the only one who’s gotten this information!” Blue clapped his hands together. “So good luck trying to get everyone to believe it. If you decide to try and tell them.”

“What? Of course I’d tell them,” Cosmo said. This was key information – how could they _not_ tell everyone else? If the person behind this sickening ultimatum was hidden here in the building, they _needed_ to find them. They all did.

“Oh, you’re so naïve,” Blue cooed, then laughed, turning into his signature chitter, “Tahaha! Imagine if you actually did so. All suspicion would immediately turn on you. How would you know? Who told you? Why would you be so insistent?” Blue tilted his head.

“I – you told me! I’d just tell them you told me!”

Blue put a finger to his lips. “But did I?”

Cosmo was beginning to get frustrated. “Yes!” they said.

“No, the question is,” Blue starts, stepping closer, and Cosmo suddenly realizes how much taller he is than them, “will they believe you when you tell them I did? Especially when I deny it?”

Cosmo clenched their teeth. Despite how much they hated what he was saying, was he right? This morning, they’d concluded pretty quickly that Blue was acting completely off of his rocker, but yesterday they’d been in disbelief. Would they still trust him, at least more than they did Cosmo? Cosmo was a complete stranger to everyone else save for Error, who had to ask for their name the first time they spoke after waking up. Even if Error would vouch for them, how likely were the others to believe him, especially when they all seemed to hate him?

“What if – what if I don’t care what they think of me?” Cosmo lied with as defiant of an expression as they could manage. “I’ll tell them anyways. Take my chances.” Blue’s smile didn’t falter. Cosmo soon felt a tight grip around their wrist, and they nearly felt their soul leave their body as Blue stared down at them with bright, unblinking eyes. Was this how murder victims felt moments before the end of their lives? They didn’t have time to think as their wrist was lifted by Blue’s gloved hand, and the bangle on their wrist came into view.

“As I recall, you were the one begging the most for me to stop electrocuting everyone,” Blue mused. “Consider this a threat. Tahaha!” he laughed raucously before dropping Cosmo’s wrist. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay silent for at least a while longer. It’ll be our little secret!” Blue clapped his hands together. “Ta-ta for now!”

When Blue’s body once more contorted and vanished into thin air, Cosmo stood in silence for a bit as their heart calmed and they tried to hold a steadier grip on the bag of pancake mix. Blue hardly gave them any time to _think._ There were so many things that Cosmo wanted to ask him, but with the threat of electrocution looming over their head, they couldn’t even think of any. Not like they could ask him, regardless – they had no clue where to find him. They couldn’t even ask for clarification. What did he mean by the mastermind being hidden somewhere within here? First of all, if what he was saying was true, then why in the world would he tell them? Wouldn’t that be counterproductive? There must be some underlying motive. They couldn’t trust him. What if he was trying to send them on a wild goose chase? Even if it was a ruse, did Cosmo have any other options?

“Oh, there you are,” Horror spoke as they finally exited the pantry with the bag of mix. “You were in there for a little while.” She glanced worriedly at the bag in Cosmo’s arms. “You didn’t mess with it?”

Cosmo quickly shook their head. “No, I-” they scrambled for an excuse, “just had a bit of trouble finding it. Big pantry and all.”

Horror still looked skeptical, but accepted the bag of mix and tore it open after giving it a once-over. “Thanks. You can take the plates of cooked pancakes out to the others.”

“Cool,” Cosmo muttered, still a little out of it as they grabbed a stack of paper plates in one hand and the large plate with all the pancaked on it in the other. They pushed the door of the kitchen open with their hip and made their way to the table.

Needless to say, the pancakes didn’t last long. Everyone was rather hungry – Cosmo guessed that fear of murder worked up quite the appetite. If that were the case, however, it would be strange that Cosmo didn’t find themselves to have much of an appetite. The pancakes looked really good – Horror was an amazing cook – but the more they looked at them and the more they sat there the more they felt like they were going to be sick if they ate a single bite.

_The mastermind is hidden somewhere in this building._

“We should explore this place,” Cosmo blurted suddenly. A few gazes turned towards them. “Like… the other rooms. And upstairs.” There was another beat of silence before they continued, “Just in case like… someone tries to hide a body. Or something. So we can know our surroundings.”

Dance set his fork down and grimaced. “Sorry, I thought we were done talking about murder while trying to have a meal,” he responded, none too friendly.

Cosmo shrunk in their seat. “Sorry, I – I just thought of it.”

“I mean, makes sense,” Reaper piped up. “I know none of us want to think about it too much, but Cosmo has a point. We should look around after breakfast and stuff.”

“You can do that,” Dance huffed, “and I’ll just be heading back to my room and trying not to die.” With an empty plate in hand, Dance excused himself from the table and went to go take care of his dishes. Classic excused himself shortly after, muttering something about talking some sense into him.

“…Okay, any other takers?” Cosmo muttered hopefully.

“I think it’s a rad idea!” Fresh piped up. “Could be fun, too. I’ll explore with you.”

Cosmo felt a bit of the tension in their shoulders melt away. They smiled. “Okay, that’s one.”

“I’ll head along with you guys,” Reaper said, standing up from the table with her empty plate. “When are you guys going to head out?”

“Uh,” Cosmo stalled for a moment, “After breakfast probably?” they said, looking over to Fresh, who was finishing their pancakes. They looked down at their full plate, thought for a moment, and then decided it would go cold before they could muster the will to eat it. “Hey. Hey Ink,” they called out across the table to the man who’d finished his pancakes and was now fiddling with a strand of his hair.

Ink looked up at Cosmo and blinked once. “Ya-huh?”

“You still hungry?” they asked him, offering their plate of pancakes to him. His eyes lit up, and he snatched it right out of their hands. They glanced back at Reaper. “Yeah. I’m ready whenever.”

Reaper looked at them skeptically before replying, “Alright. Hey, Fresh, gimme your plate. I’m heading to the kitchen.”

Cosmo wrung their hands nervously, waiting for Reaper to return. They glanced left and right, where the others at the table were talking amongst themselves in whispers and mumbles. From all the way at the end of the long table, Error caught their eyes – he looked worse for wear, with bags under his eyes and hunched shoulders. Cosmo gave him a worried glance before he noticed they were staring at him. He choked softly on his pancakes before glaring right back at them.

“Okay, we’re ready to go if you are.”

Cosmo glanced up at Reaper, who’d spoken. “Right. Perfect,” they replied, standing up from the table.

Reaper smiled warmly – much appreciated, if Cosmo were being honest – and gestured for them and Fresh to follow as she headed out of the cafeteria. “So – I actually was doing a little bit of looking around yesterday, and turns out, the staircases that supposedly lead to a second floor are blocked off at the top.”

Cosmo frowned. “Wait, really?” they asked. “But there’s a second floor, right?”

Reaper nodded. “Yeah, there’s a second floor, but there’s like some sort of gate blocking the way. I tried to get past it, but-“ she winced, “Blue snuck up behind me, scared the shit out of me, and told me that anyone caught trying to break it down would face his ‘special punishment.’” Reaper made air quotes with her fingers. “He also said it’s in this rules section on the tablets we got. Like, there’s a bunch of rules that if we break, we get punished, which I can only _assume_ means… you know.”

“Fresh-xecution?” Fresh said, and Reaper groaned in annoyance.

“That one didn’t even work,” she said.

Fresh smiled sheepishly. “What? Sometimes my lingo turns out a li’l less than totally tubular, ya know?”

Reaper rolled her eyes. “In any case, do you have that tablet with you?”

Cosmo nodded, pulling it out of their coat pocket. “Yeah. Almost forgot it this morning.”

“Yeah, well, it looks like you’d better be keeping that on you at all times. Blue said he could update the rules whenever, so. It’s not a good idea to leave it where you can’t access it.”

Cosmo nodded in thought, then turned the tablet on. It lit up with a tiny pixel icon of Blue’s face, then changed to a menu with a few options. One of them, like Reaper said, was labeled ‘Rules,’ but the others were labeled things like ‘Friends,’ ‘Map,’ and ‘Customization.’ Cosmo clicked on the Rules tab, though they made a mental note to check out the other tabs later. The tabs disappeared, and up popped a screen with a list of several rules.

  1. _Participants may reside only within the pocket dimension. Leaving or attempting to leave unauthorized will result in swift and immediate punishment._
  2. _Nighttime is from 10pm to 8am. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution._
  3. _Sleeping anywhere other than the dorms is unacceptable and will be punished accordingly._
  4. _With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore the pocket dimension at your discretion._
  5. _Violence against your host, Blue, is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of doors, gates, and surveillance cameras._
  6. _Anyone who kills a fellow participant will be authorized to leave, unless they are discovered through prosecution in a group trial._
  7. _Additional regulations may be added if necessary._



“Yo, did anyone else catch that funky part about the surveillance cameras?” Fresh said. Cosmo looked over to them and saw that they too had pulled out their tablet and were browsing the rules. “What surveillance cameras is he talkin’ bout?”

“Yeah, I don’t quite… know…” Cosmo trailed off as they looked around them. To their left, tucked away in the corner of the wall and ceiling, was a camera – barely visible. “I… assume Blue means those.” Cosmo pointed to where they saw the camera, and Fresh and Reaper’s gazes followed.

“Eugh. Spooky,” Reaper muttered. “I mean… I guess Blue has to know who killed who somehow. Especially if it’s supposed to be a secret murder.”

The double doors of the cafeteria behind them were suddenly pushed open. Cosmo glanced over their shoulder to see Hearts, who’d just come through the door. “Oh! Perfect,” he greeted, “I was going to go looking for you three. Mind if I join you in exploring the place?”

“Not at all, you’re totally fine,” Cosmo answered without hesitation, but they did look a little confused as to why Reaper was suddenly… uncomfortable looking. They didn’t comment on it, but they did remember the conversation they had with Error and Hearts after they first woke up in the pocket dimension - Hearts had some sort of reputation. Either way, Cosmo wasn’t about to ask or judge based on something they didn’t know about him. “We were just checking something on the tablets we got. Apparently there’s a ‘rules’ section.”

Hearts nodded. “I noticed that earlier. I mean, they shouldn’t be too hard to follow, right? We’re not in danger of breaking them and getting…” Hearts drew a finger across his neck.

“No, but we were just talking about how we can’t actually go upstairs,” Cosmo said. “Reaper found some gates at the top of the stairs, and we can’t break them down or anything.”

Hearts sucked in a breath. “Noted. So, which room are we exploring first?”

“I dunno about any of you guys, but I figure checkin’ out that place would be a pretty stellar idea,” Fresh said, jerking a thumb over their shoulder to the door right behind them. The door had a pretty clear ‘infirmary’ label above it, printed in big block letters on a horizontal sign. “You know, just in case we find someone half wiped out and need to do some first aid.”

“If first aid would even cover it,” Reaper muttered. “But yeah, good idea. Let’s go.”

Taking a look inside the infirmary revealed a rather small but open area with polished tile floor and several cupboards lining the walls. There was a hospital bed tucked against the corner and a mini-fridge placed against the opposite wall between a break in the counter and cupboards. Looking inside the cupboards, there were various medical supplies packed neatly on the shelves – first aid, but as Cosmo looked closer, there also seemed to be pill bottles that also contained prescription level medication. Past those, there were various bottles and chemicals that looked… less than safe.

“Oh, that’s nasty,” Fresh muttered, opening up the mini-fridge and making a face. Cosmo looked over in time to see them squat down and take a good look at what was on the lower shelf of the fridge. “And these… don’t look like meds.” They pulled out a small bottle. “Ah. That’s poison. Yuck.”

“What was that you said was nasty?” Hearts asked, trying to get a look over Fresh’s shoulder to no avail.

“Bags of blood,” Fresh replied simply. “Did they really think any of us would know how to do a transfusion? Cause that’s usually the only stuff that you need blood for.”

“I don’t think they would,” Reaper said, looking at the stocked mini fridge with unease.

“Dang skippy,” Fresh muttered in agreement. They stood back up and closed the mini fridge. “All in favor of not touching that again?”

Cosmo, Reaper, and Hearts swiftly agreed. The mini fridge was left alone, and they continued to make notes of the rest of the kinds of medication that were in here. Out of the corner of their eye, Cosmo saw Hearts snatch a bottle of pills off of one of the shelves and quickly pocket it – Cosmo opened their mouth to ask what that was, but they were tapped on the shoulder by Reaper, who handed them something - an inhaler. “Can you read the label on that?” she asked, a little embarrassed. “I normally wear contacts, and I don’t have them now, so I can’t exactly…” she trailed off.

Cosmo nodded and read the label to Reaper, albeit with a little stumbling over the words. “You have asthma or something?” they asked after they finished.

Reaper blinked. “Who, me? Oh, no, actually, it’s for Dust. She does.”

“And you know her exact prescription?” Cosmo asked, a little amused.

“I mean, vaguely. She can read over the label a second time to see if it has anything she can’t take in it,” Reaper said in it. She took the inhaler back from Cosmo. “I think we’re got all we needed from here. Should we move on?”

Cosmo and the other two agreed. Moving along down the hall revealed a laundry room with several machines and dryers as well as shelves of detergent. Nothing looked out of the ordinary there – or at least, none of it looked like it was made to be utilized as a murder weapon. The next room across the hall revealed a small area that was cluttered with lots of what looked to be trinkets of various shapes and sizes. There was a small gacha machine on a counter that looked like it accepted coins of some kind – Hearts warily pulled out a penny from his pocket and stuck it in the machine. Surprisingly, a capsule rolled out, and Hearts popped it open to reveal a slip of paper.

“Your prize corresponds to item thirty-nine,” Hearts read out loud. “Are the things in here labeled?”

Cosmo casually picked up one of the trinkets on the counter – a handheld telescope that actually looked far more valuable than a penny’s worth. There was a piece of paper tied to it with the number 39 printed on it. “It seems so,” they said, holding it out to Hearts, then snorted softly, “Your prize, sir.”

Hearts laughed softly and took the telescope. “So if we find pennies under couch cushions somewhere in this place, we can grab random things from here. Couldn’t we just take them otherwise?”

“Stealing is bad, you know!” chirped a familiar voice from behind them. Hearts shrieked as they all turned in surprise to see Blue’s smiling face amidst the swirling, pixelated particles all around him. “Oh, dear. Not happy to see me?”

“Not again, no,” Cosmo blurted without thinking.

“Again? Have you seen him already today?” Reaper asked.

Blue put a finger to his chin. “Yeah, Cosmo, what _are_ you talking about?”

Cosmo pressed their lips into a flat line and shook their head. “Nothing, sorry. I just meant like… yesterday,” they lied. “Regardless, what are you doing here?”

“Reprimanding you for even considering thievery, of course!” Blue replied, pointing a finger. “I keep this place under very tight watch! If you somehow pilfer a prize without the necessary slip of paper, well!” Blue tapped his wrist, “The last moments of your lives will be filled with various unpleasant sensations!”

“So shoplifting’s a no-no, but you’re encouraging us to bash in each other’s skulls?” Fresh surmised. “That’s pretty wack. Who would wanna steal this junk, anyways?”

“Junk?!?” Blue looked mortally offended. “I’ll have you know, a lot of these materials are very high quality! Only the best for gift-giving! Well…” He trailed off. “I suppose the gift-giving function is useless now, since none of you wanted to go with the friendship option of your life here. Originally, I had planned to award you coins and things for doing nice things, which you could then spend here for a chance to win a lovely prize that you could then gift to someone… but it’s all useless now. Regardless, I assure you these lovely trinkets aren’t _junk._ ”

“Like it or not, he’s telling the truth,” Cosmo muttered. “The telescope you got is actually really high quality, for a handheld.” They gestured to the telescope, which Hearts was still holding.

Hearts lifted it up, looking at it closely. “Huh. I couldn’t tell.” They lowered it, then held it out to Cosmo. “Error said you’re really into astronomy, so. Do you want it?”

Cosmo blinked. Error knew they were into astronomy? And he told Hearts about it? Well, Error _had_ called them star kid. “I mean, it’s yours if you want to keep it, but I wouldn’t say no to it.”

Hearts shrugged. “What would I use it for? They don’t have stars where I’m from.”

Cosmo’s jaw dropped. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Oh boy. Cosmo, my homeslice, that’s a long story for another time,” Fresh said, reaching out and gently patting them on the shoulder. “In, uh, more pressing news, do you think you could turn off your whole creepy glitching thing?” they asked, directed at Blue. “You looked like you didn’t have it before.”

“I mean-” Blue started, glitches settling down as he spoke, “I can. I could.” His jet-black skin and hair started to lighten into a more mellow, warm brown. His eyes turned to a more human-looking blue, and his clothes swapped back to what he’d been wearing before – light grey and sky blue. The yellow stars on his face subsided into his skin. “Like this. But it’s much more fun to scare you!”

Hearts grit his teeth. “Please don’t.”

“Tahaha! Too bad,” Blue taunted before attempting to switch back to his glitched form. Strangely enough, the only part of him that switched colors was his left side – as if he’d been split right down the middle. Odd distortions of hues happened in the line right down the middle, but the colors were rather clear on each side. “Hm. That wasn’t supposed to happen.” He shrugged, then winked with his right eye. “Well, ta-ta! Enjoy your telescope, Mx. Cosmo!” For the third time that Cosmo had witnessed, Blue contorted out of sight.

“Well…” Hearts muttered, then held out the telescope to Cosmo. “All yours.”

Cosmo hesitated for a moment, then pushed it back to Hearts. “Nah. You keep it. When we get out of here, I’ll take you to my place. Then you can see the stars.”

Hearts looked surprised, but then smiled. “I’d like that. I’d like that a lot.”

Reaper cleared her throat. “So. We moving on?”

The four of them left the crowded prize room quickly after that. The only doors left after that were locked except for one, which they quickly discovered was the laundry room with nothing special inside. While the label above one of the locked doors said ‘trash room,’ the other didn’t have a label. Since they were prevented from breaking in and none of them knew how to pick a lock, they called it there. Reaper, Fresh, and Hearts went their separate ways, and Cosmo, with nothing better to do, went to the common room. They considered for a moment going back to their bedroom, but if they did that, they’d be tempted to sleep, and doing so at – what time was it, ten? Eleven? Either way, that wouldn’t be a good idea.

They opened the door to the common room and stepped inside. Glancing around notified them of a single person sitting on one of the couches – a woman with stark white hair in a low ponytail. Cosmo remembered her name was Geno. “Do you mind if I join you?” they asked as Geno turned to see who was there.

“Oh – not at all, feel free to sit down,” Geno said, gesturing to the couch across from her.

Cosmo nodded, closed the door behind them, and plopped themselves down on the couch. They let their eyes fall shut. It was kind of peaceful in here – no sound except for the crackling of the fireplace. Cosmo did wonder how that worked, though – if it was a real fireplace, how did it transform into an elevator? Magic, probably. They sighed softly and decided not to think about it.

Geno cleared her throat, and Cosmo opened their eyes. “So… Cosmo, right?”

Cosmo nodded. “And you’re Geno?”

“Yep, that’s me,” she said. “We spoke briefly when we were all in here yesterday, but I didn’t really get a chance to find out where you’re from.”

Cosmo scratched the back of their head. “Someplace ‘off-grid,’” they said, making air quotes, “whatever that means. I mean. I sort of get it. You’re all part of some… trans-multiversal… thing. And I’m not. Because until yesterday, I didn’t know parallel dimensions existed.” They crossed their arms and huffed. “To be honest, I still think it’s a load of crap.”

Geno snorted. “Did someone already guess your name?”

“Old legal name, actually, but yeah, Cross did,” Cosmo said. “And that’s literally the only evidence I’ve been given, besides waking up in a strange place with no idea how I got here.” Cosmo paused. “Now that I think about it, actually… it’s strange. I don’t remember how I got here.”

“I mean, that might just be Blue’s fault,” Geno said. “I don’t remember anything either. I remember… going to sleep after a long day in the alpha timeline, and then waking up in the kitchen. Horror was in the pantry, though, and that was…” She shook her head. “She flipped.”

“You say that like you expect me to already know about her-” Cosmo paused, “Actually, that… seems really personal. Why would everyone know that?”

Geno rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “Ah, you’re right, I guess. You’ve been told that we use our differences to tell us apart, right? Well, Horror’s issues with food… they’re kind of her key difference between everyone else.”

“So… you use her eating disorder to differentiate? That’s messed up, regardless of what your excuse is.”

“Eating disorder?” Geno asked. “I mean… you could call it that, but it would be an understatement. No, Horror comes from a rather unique universe. Food was scarce and many people, including herself and her sister, resorted to… well, cannibalism.”

 _Crazy cannibal,_ Cosmo recalled Dance saying that morning. So that’s what he meant. Cosmo’s mouth ran dry. “I… I see. She seems.. I don’t know, she doesn’t look like someone who would do that.”

Geno smiled sadly. “She’s been through a lot of recovery and therapy. Her sister, though… hasn’t been doing so well.”

“Oh… that’s unfortunate,” Cosmo said, then shook their head. “But you know, enough about Horror’s personal life. I’m sure she wants to keep that private.” They clasped their hands together on their lap a bit awkwardly.

“Right, sorry, you mentioned that before,” Geno said. “We – and by we I mean me and the others – tend to gossip a lot and hold grudges against one another based on our universes. Or past trauma or misdeeds. I’ll be the first to say that’s not our best quality.”

“I’ll say,” Cosmo huffed, then glanced at Geno. “I – I mean, you obviously didn’t mean to-”

“No, you’re right,” Geno said. “I guess it’s why Blue said he trapped us here in the first place. Getting along and all. Except then it turned to murder.” She paused. “Except… I’m not sure why he brought you here.”

Cosmo pointed at themselves. “Me?”

“Yeah,” Geno said, brows furrowing. “You’re totally off-grid. Why would you need to be brought to a place like this? You didn’t know anyone. And in general, off-grid universes are a lot harder to reach.”

“I don’t know, but first, please, _please_ tell me what off-grid actually means,” Cosmo begged. “I’m entirely lost here.”

“Right, sorry,” Geno apologized again. “So… our universes are connected by a public transportation system called the Network. It’s how we get from universe to universe, since not all of us have innate magical universe-teleporting abilities, you know? And not all universes are connected by it, but smaller lines reach out to those ones from networked universes. It’s like a big spiderweb, and anyone connected to the central station is in-network. Most universes are.”

Cosmo nodded, trying to take it all in. “Okay. Makes sense. And… anyone not connected to this transportation system… which would mainly be universes that don’t know of the existence of other universes… would be-”

“Off-grid, yeah,” Geno finished.

“Cool, okay,” Cosmo said. “Now I think I can answer your question – I knew Error beforehand. He’s the only one I knew before coming here. Maybe that had something to do with it?”

Geno pursed her lips. “Maybe. How did you know Error?”

“Well, he’d come to my town all the time,” Cosmo explained. “There’s a cliffside overlooking this really pretty nebula, and-”

“Sorry, did you say nebula?”

“I live in space,” Cosmo dropped casually. “Which is… probably not normal, now that I think about it.”

Geno shook her head. “Definitely not. How’d you get to _space?_ ”

“Well, it’s a bit of a long story,” Cosmo said. “There was a war between two factions of the human race, and my side lost. We got sealed away in the depths of space as punishment for losing. That’s the short version.”

“Yeah okay, that makes sense,” Geno said with surprising ease. “Everyone else has a similar story, except most were sealed underground in a giant cave. No sunlight. No stars.”

“…So that’s what Hearts meant when he said he’d never seen the stars.”

Geno snorted. “Yeah. Not a lot of us have. Well, more of us now that we have access to the alpha timeline, which lives on the Surface, but…” She trailed off. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Cosmo asked, brows furrowing for a moment before their ears picked up something from outside. They turned their head towards the door as they began to hear what Geno was talking about – shouting. It sounded like an argument coming from outside. “…What are they doing out there?”

 _“Hey – hey, break it up!”_ came a shout from outside. Cosmo looked back at Geno with wide eyes. Geno returned the expression, and they both immediately shot to their feet and ran out of the common room.

Outside in the foyer, Cosmo was met with the sight of… they couldn’t tell how many people were tangled on the ground. Three? They could make out Error, clawing and kicking at the other two, and after a moment they registered Dream trying to force Error and whoever else was there apart. On the sidelines stood Cross, Classic, Killer, and Dance – but who was the one wrestling with Error?

“Nightmare, what the hell?!? Let him go!” Dream snapped, pushing away at the other person, who tumbled to the floor, having finally broken away. Nightmare pushed herself to her feet, hair draped over her whole face until she brushed some away from her left eye – narrowed with a dilated pupil.

“I can settle my own shit,” Nightmare hissed at Dream. “You didn’t have to step in.”

“Get your fucking hands off of me!” Error shouted from underneath Dream’s monstrous grip. Dream immediately backed off, and Error scrambled to his feet. His shoulders shook. “Don’t _fucking_ touch me, okay?!?”

“I was trying to get _her-_ ” Dream pointed at Nightmare, “-off of you! So maybe try saying thanks instead!”

“I didn’t need your help!” Error snapped at the same time Nightmare scoffed “He didn’t need your help.” The two glared at each other for a split second before Error trained his gaze back on Dream. “You. Don’t do that shit again, okay?”

“I was trying to _help,_ ” Dream insisted again.

“And look how that turned out,” Nightmare scoffed. “Learn to mind your own business, Dream.”

“And let you beat the hell out of each other?” Dream asked. “I think not.”

“The hell were you even fighting about?” Classic asked. “And was it really something to get into a physical fight over?”

“It’s none of your goddamn business,” Error snapped. “And we’re done. Shit’s settled. You don’t have to be a nosy asshole.”

“I think we do have to be nosey assholes if you’re trying to get someone killed not even twenty-four hours after we’ve arrived,” Killer said. “Give some time for the rest of us, won’t you?”

“Not appreciated, Killer,” Classic sighed.

“No, he’s right,” Error said. “You just wanted an excuse to never deal with me again, didn’t you, Nightmare? Decided to get two birds with one stone?”

“You were the one that said shit’s settled, so act like it,” Nightmare huffed. “I’m done.” She turned on her heel and stalked back into the dormitory hallway.

Dream sighed and stood up himself, quickly running after her. “Nightmare, wait,” he called as he followed her down the hall.

There was a bit more silence after Dream left. Cross broke it by sighing softly and going to follow after Dream. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t piss her off even more,” she said before disappearing down the hall.

After another moment, Dance spoke up. “Who the hell started that?” he asked, glaring over at Error.

“Not important. It’s over with,” Error snapped. “Can you all leave me the hell alone? Thanks.” Error straightened out his coat and angrily stalked past Killer, down the hall that led to the cafeteria.

Cosmo turned to Geno. “I’m… gonna go see if I can talk to him,” they said, excusing themselves from their already-interrupted conversation with Geno to also slide past Killer quickly and down the hall. They heard a door shut, and caught the motion of the laundry room door out of the corner of their eye just in time.

Cosmo gently opened the laundry room door and poked their head inside. “Error?” they said, and Error’s shoulders visibly tensed. He glanced over his shoulder at Cosmo.

“Didn’t I say I wanted to be left alone?” he grumbled. Looking closer, Cosmo could see he held something in his hands – a scarf. His scarf, the one he usually wore. There were lots of stitches across it in different colors – it looked like it’d been ripped apart and repaired several times. All of Error’s clothing had the same stitching pattern, actually. Was Error too attached to his clothing to get new ones? Was he able to get new ones? Whatever the reason, it made the clothing look like he’d had it for a _long_ time.

“I know you did, but I wanted to make sure you were okay,” Cosmo said. “I’m not gonna ask you about the fight or anything like that, I just…” They wrung their hands together. “Yeah. _Are_ you okay?”

Error stared at them quizzically. “I don’t get it. You asked me that yesterday. You shouldn’t care.”

“That almost makes it sound like you’re trying to push me away because you’re scared of someone caring.”

Error gave them a murderous glare. “Shut the fuck up. I’m not scared,” he hissed. “I’m annoyed.” He looked down at his scarf and frowned. “…Really annoyed.”

“Did something happen to your scarf?” Cosmo asked tentatively.

Despite his annoyance, Error answered, “One of the seams ripped while Nightmare and I were fighting. It’s also got dust on it. I was going to wash it, but I just noticed the seam.”

“How bad is the seam rip?” Cosmo said, approaching closer. “Could you wash it without it getting worse?”

Error snorted. “Definitely not. Look,” he said, holding out the scarf a little. One of the embroidered seams was ripped wide open, leaving a gaping hole in the fabric. After Cosmo had been looking at it for a couple seconds, Error seemed to realize something, frowned, and pulled his scarf back. “So – yeah. I need to fix the seam first. Normally it wouldn’t be a problem, since I keep sewing needles on me and I can make string myself, but all my needles have been taken and this stupid thing-“ He lifted up his arm with the magic restricting bracelet on it, “-makes it so I can’t make any sort of thread on my own.”

“Well,” Cosmo said, “until you can get that one fixed, isn’t your closet filled with a bunch of identical changes of clothes? Or was that just me?”

Error hesitated, then muttered, “I can’t just replace this scarf like that.”

“Why, is it special?” Cosmo asked.

Error glared at them again. “None of your business,” he snapped. “Why are you even still here? Get out.”

Cosmo raised their hands in surrender. “All right, okay, I’ll leave,” they said, backing up. “Before I do, though, are you sure you’re okay? I really only want to help.”

Error paused. “I’m fine. I don’t need your help. So leave.”

Reluctantly, Cosmo left.

The rest of the day passed by a bit more calmly. Cosmo visited the cafeteria around two to find Horror cooking up a storm in the kitchen, and when prompted, Horror revealed she hadn’t left the kitchen since breakfast. Sensibly alarmed, Cosmo immediately made sure she took a break and ate lunch before going back to cooking. Cosmo also took this time to grab a bite to eat before heading back to the common room. Geno had vanished, so Cosmo had the room mostly to themselves until around four, when Dance and Classic stumbled into the room, laughing to themselves. Turns out, Dance had a couple of coins on him, and took a few cracks at the gacha machine in the prize room before ending up with a deck of cards. Despite not expecting Cosmo to be there, the both of them invited Cosmo to play poker with them, and after a few hands, Cosmo was sorely losing. They had a good time regardless, and after a few more hands, they settled on just watching Classic and Dance duke it out.

Later, at around seven, Cosmo wandered back into the cafeteria. There were a good few people in here by now, and Horror was serving dinner to anyone who wanted it. Again, Cosmo made sure Horror took a break, this time by insisting Horror get a plate of her own and join them at the table. With a bit of reluctance, she did, though not without constantly glancing back at the kitchen to make sure no one was sneaking in.

After dinner, Cosmo hung around a bit more in the cafeteria, chatting up a storm with Cross and Hearts. With a little polite probing, they learned that Cross was a former bodyguard and that Hearts was a sex worker. Hearts looked a little nervous to disclose that, but Cosmo reassured him that he didn’t have anything to worry about. Was this what gave Hearts his negative reputation? Cosmo wouldn’t be surprised. Disappointed, yes, but not surprised. Both seemed rather reluctant to tell Cosmo anything about their home universes, but they were more than happy to let Cosmo talk about theirs. They seemed fascinated when Cosmo described Stardin and the cliffs that overlooked the nebulas as well as the asteroid belt that barred them from returning back to Earth.

All too soon, the nighttime announcement played, and they all left the cafeteria as it closed. Cosmo stayed back to check the laundry room to see if Error was still there – he wasn’t – and then headed back to their room on their own.

“Fuck, I’m exhausted,” Cosmo hear someone mutter a bit down the hall as they were about to enter their bedroom. They looked up to see Fell, hand on the doorknob to her room. Cosmo gave her a sympathetic smile.

“Long day?”

Fell looked up, then chuckled. “Yeah. Fresh wouldn’t leave me the hell alone. Dunno why. They hate swearing and I cuss like a sailor. They said they wanted to-” Fell made air quotes, “help me be more radtastically positive. I don’t think radtastic is a word.”

“It’s not,” Cosmo affirmed. “Get some good sleep, alright?”

Fell nodded. “I’ll try, but. You know.”

“Yeah,” Cosmo responded softly. They knew. This entire situation, no matter how much they socialized or explored or laughed around with everyone else… it was stressful. Frightening. “Good night, Fell.”

“G’night, Cosmo.”

Cosmo grabbed their key out of their pocket and unlocked their door, closing it behind them as they entered. They locked the door before setting the key on their bedside table and immediately peeling their jacket off. This time, they actually grabbed a pair of pajamas from the closet and changed – the pajamas were surprisingly comfortable – and got ready for bed. As soon as they were in bed, tucked in, and cozy, they closed their eyes and drifted off.

…Except they didn’t. Cosmo tossed and turned and pressed pillows and blankets over their head to try to get rid of the sudden surge of anxiety that blossomed in their chest, but they couldn’t. What if someone broke down the door, despite it being against the rules, and came in here with a kitchen knife and stabbed them to death? Despite getting murdered at night being the least of their worries, Cosmo found themselves freaking out over it.

They tossed the covers off of themselves and hopped to their feet, heading for the door to make sure it was locked, despite having already done so. They gripped the doorknob tight and turned it – nope. It didn’t budge. However, they did hear footsteps from outside, so there was that.

…Footsteps? No one was supposed to be out at night. Cosmo froze, listening intently to the steps that grew louder and louder… and then faded. As if someone had approached, walked right past their room, and down the hall. For a moment, Cosmo debated opening the door to check what had happened, but stomped that thought out immediately. That was a terrible idea.

Cosmo cracked open the door anyways. No one was in the hallway. That sent a bolt of fear down their spine for a second before they glanced towards the end of the hallway and saw the tail end of a familiar black coat disappear around the corner. _Error?_ They quickly left their room, pajamas and all, and followed him out into the foyer.

“Error? What are you doing awake?”

Error, who’d been heading through the other archway, spun around quick as lightning. “Jesus. Don’t do that. It’s one in the fucking morning. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

Cosmo winced. “Sorry,” they said, trying to keep their voice low. Others were sleeping, after all. “…Not to presume you want to follow curfew, but we did all agree. It’s also not safe at night.”

Error snorted. “What, are you planning on murdering me right here?”

“What? No!” Cosmo said, affronted.

“Then I’m good. You’re not going to murder me, and no one else will murder me with a witness present.”

Cosmo frowned. “Where are you even going?”

“Laundry room,” Error said simply, then turned and walked through the archway towards said room. Cosmo followed.

“Again?” they asked as they stepped inside the room after him. “Did you wash your scarf?”

“Yeah, I decided to risk it,” Error said, then crouched down and opened one of the dryers. He pulled out his scarf, then looked at the broken seam. “Hm. It’s a little worse, but not unwearable or unfixable.” He draped it over his shoulders. “I can sew it back up when I get out of here.” He stood up, then glanced at Cosmo. “What, are you waiting so you can escort me back to my room?”

“Sort of,” Cosmo said. “I don’t like being alone at night out here either.”

Error snickered. “Wuss,” he commented before walking right past them out the laundry room door.

“Hey, I’m just trying to stay alive!” Cosmo shot back as they followed him. “Didn’t we literally just go over this yesterday? Or – the day before, technically?” It _was_ one in the morning, so it was technically ‘tomorrow.’

“And I’m saying it again, you’re a wuss,” Error shot over his shoulder, though he was smiling instead of scowling. The smile quickly faded, and he rolled his eyes. “Come on. You wanted the buddy system, you gotta keep up.”

“My legs are shorter that yours,” Cosmo protested weakly, though they quickly caught up. The both of them quickly crossed the foyer into the bedroom area, and Cosmo stopped at their door. Error’s was only a couple doors down. He grabbed the doorknob, then looked at Cosmo skeptically.

“Did you seriously wait for me to get to my door?” Error asked them.

Cosmo shrugged. “Buddy system?” they tried.

Error snorted. “Nerd,” he sneered before entering his room and shutting the door behind him. Cosmo did the same, re-locking the door behind them and immediately collapsing on their bed.

Sleep came much easier this time.

_Click._

“Gooooood morning everyone! It is now eight AM and nighttime is officially over. Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another _beautiful_ day!”

Cosmo groaned as they stirred, sitting up and rubbing their eyes before throwing their covers off. Despite not getting to sleep until past one in the morning, they felt well rested. They hooped out of bed, showering and getting dressed in a mindless blur before hearing a knock on their door in the middle of drying their hair. Deciding it was dry enough, Cosmo turned off the hairdryer and set it down on the bathroom counter before heading to the door and opening it.

“Oh, hey Ink. What’s up?” Cosmo said.

“Breakfast! You look a lot better this morning. That’s good! I hope you’re doing all right!” Ink cheered enthusiastically.

“Uh, yeah, I got better sleep, I guess,” Cosmo muttered. “Why are you here again? I mean, it’s not a bad thing, but I was just about to head out on my own.”

“Eh, everyone else is super impatient,” Ink muttered. “Come on, let’s go!” Ink reached out, grabbed Cosmo’s arm, and dragged them out the door towards the cafeteria. They burst through the cafeteria doors in a hurry as Ink pulled them along. Everyone else was already waiting at the table – even Horror, who looked like she was itching to get to the kitchen once again.

“I got them!” Ink exclaimed. “Now can we have breakfast?”

“Uh, Ink,” Reaper said, tilting her head as he and Cosmo approached the table, “We told you to get the last _two._ There’s still someone who isn’t here.”

Ink frowned. “But I did get everyone who wasn’t here. I knocked on all the doors. Cosmo was the only one.”

Cosmo felt a chill go down their spine. “Someone’s missing?” they said. They glanced around at everyone sitting at the table – who? Who was it? And more importantly-

“Okay, time to go find a body!” Killer chirped, clapping his hands together and standing up from the table. “Damn, can’t believe it’s time already.”

“You’re just assuming whoever’s gone is dead?” Hearts said, standing up as well. “They could just be running late.”

“But we made these morning meetings purposefully to check who’s alive and who’s not,” Killer groaned, exasperated. “So they’re not here and so they’re dead. Let’s go. Chop chop.” He snickered. “Maybe even literally.”

“That was terrible,” Hearts said as Killer bounded past Cosmo and out of the cafeteria. “Oh god, he’s gone. Let’s go, everyone.”

Cosmo’s heart started to beat faster and faster as people started to file out of the room. They looked back to the table – Horror still sat there, glancing back at the kitchen, but most of the others were murmuring to one another, getting ready to search the whole building.

“Hey, Horror,” Cosmo spoke.

Horror’s sharp gaze trained on them. “Yeah?” she said.

“You don’t want to leave the kitchen, yeah?” they asked her. Horror shook her head. “Well, uh… maybe we could investigate it together.” Partially because there’s no way there could be anyone in the kitchen – Horror supervised it all the time – and partially because if there was anyone there, well… Cosmo didn’t want to face it alone.

Horror quickly nodded, jumping up from her seat. “Yes. Yes, please.”

“Hold up, I’ll come with you guys,” Fell said from the other side of the table. “If that’s alright?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Cosmo said, starting to not pay attention to the words that were spoken. Blood was rushing to their head, their heart was pounding, and they quickly moved to the kitchen door, where Horror was already getting ready to open it. Time seemed to slow down as Horror pushed it open and walked inside the dark room. Cosmo followed, waiting for the automatic lights to flicker on.

_Click._

Everything looked normal. Sort of. The kitchen was fully stocked and clean, except…

“Oh god,” Horror whimpered, clapping her hands over her mouth. “Are they – is that-”

“Dead,” Cosmo finished Horror’s question with a shaking voice. They took a step forward. “Fresh. Fresh, if you’re alive, please, god, just…” they trailed off, rapidly losing the belief that they would respond.

“Guys? Guys, what’s going on?” Ink shouted from the back, then stepped into the room. “Why are you all – _oh._ ”

A chime came from the loudspeaker.

_“A body has been discovered!”_

  
  



	3. Chapter 1 - Deadly Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: A bit of eye gore on the corpse, blood, injuries. No visuals this chapter. 
> 
> Thank you all so much for the support so far in this fic! I'm really excited for this trial, and I hope you are too.

_ “A body has been discovered!” _

Cosmo stared in disbelief at the corpse in front of them on the ground. The distinct smell of blood hit their nostrils and they nearly retched, instinctively gripping onto the counter to steady themselves. Their palm hit something warm and sticky.

_ “Please report to the kitchen immediately. You have a certain amount of time to conduct your investigation, and when that time is up, the trial will begin! Good luck to you all!” _

Cosmo lifted their shaky hand from the counter. Blood was smeared all over their palm. They let out a startled cry, then stumbled to the sink to wash off their palm. Glancing in the sink provided them with even more blood splattered along the basin. They instinctively jerked their bloodied hand away, then reached out with their other hand to turn the faucet on to wash it all away.

They were stopped by a gloved hand curling around their wrist. “Don’t do that, that’s evidence,” Ink said. “Just – here, wipe it off on this towel.” Ink handed them a washrag that had been sitting on the counter and helped them clean their palm, albeit messily.

Evidence. That’s what they had to be thinking of this as? Evidence? Cosmo’s gaze drifted down to Fresh’s lifeless corpse. They were just evidence now, too? Cosmo really felt like they were going to vomit this time. There was a dead body. A  _ dead body.  _ Not just any dead body, that was  _ Fresh,  _ dead on the ground. Cosmo had just seen them yesterday, alive and smiling.

“All right, who the hell is – oh, Christ,” came Dance’s voice from the doorway. Cosmo didn’t even bother looking up at him – they were still trying to not vomit at the sight of Fresh’s pale corpse. “They’re dead?”

Nobody wanted to confirm. After a moment, Ink did. “Yep. Dead as a doornail. Watch your step, there’s blood. We don’t want to disturb it.”

“Disturb the… the blood?” Cosmo said, voice cracking in the middle of their sentence. “Not the – the  _ body _ ? That’s someone’s  _ dead body. _ ”

“Whose?” Killer poked his head inside the room, spotted Fresh’s body, then let out a bark of laughter. “Ha! Not surprised they kicked the bucket first. Guess whoever did the deed got tired of their stupid slang, huh?”

Cosmo bristled with rage. They turned to face Killer, opening their mouth to give him a piece of their mind, but Horror beat them to the punch. She approached Killer and shoved him by the shoulders out of the kitchen. “Leave and don’t come back.”

“What, you’re going to bar me from the investigation that saves our hides?” Killer asked incredulously.

“Until you can act with some respect towards the dead, yes,” Horror growled.

“Says the cannibal,” Killer hissed. Horror flinched, and Cosmo stepped in.

“No, says everyone with a shred of decency,” they said, voice wavering still. “Now shut up or get out.”

Killer stared Cosmo down for a moment before averting his eyes. “Fine. I’ll shut up. I’m serious about wanting to look at the body, though.”

After hesitating for a moment, Cosmo let him through. They stood by the doorway, still trying to calm themselves.  _ Pull yourself together, Cosmo. _ And yet they still stood there as more and more people entered the room, reactions to the body ranging from fright to pity to sorrow. Cosmo wasn’t feeling any of that. Or maybe they were feeling all of it at once. Did all of it at once feel like a pit of dread in the bottom of your stomach?

“Cosmo. Hey, buddy.” Cosmo looked up. Classic was standing a bit close to them. “You’re gonna wear yourself out if you overthink it.”

Cosmo inhaled shakily. Their eyes flitted back to the corpse before returning to Classic. “How do – how can I not overthink this?” they breathed out. “Fresh is dead.  _ Dead. _ And they-” Cosmo paused as the words got caught in their throat. “-they were murdered.”

Classic sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Yup. And now you’ve gotta calm down, okay? Otherwise you’re gonna be in a real bad situation.”

Cosmo nodded. “Okay. Okay, you’re right, I need to… think. I need to think.”

“You sure you don’t need to step outside or anything?”

Cosmo hesitated before shaking their head. “No, I’m fine. Thank you, though,” they professed before finally taking another glance at Fresh’s body. They were slumped against the central kitchen counter, glasses knocked askew and blood dribbling over their bottom lip and onto their clothing. Cosmo stepped forward and bent down to get a closer look.

“So how do you think they died?”

Cosmo jolted when Ink’s voice brushed right against their ear. They turned to find themselves nearly cheek-to cheek with him. He was also squatting right next to them, expression painted with an amount of curiosity that Cosmo could only describe as sick. “I – I haven’t been looking that long, I can’t conclude much,” Cosmo told him.

Ink nodded solemnly. “See these marks?” he said, reaching out and touching Fresh’s corpse with no hesitation. He pulled back the popped pink collar and ran his thumb along their neck. “Like someone grabbed their throat.” Despite how eerily comfortable Ink seemed to be with touching a dead body, he was right. They were a little faint, but they could be made out fairly easily – red marks in the shape of fingers.

“So… someone strangled them?” Cosmo asked.

“That’s one explanation!” Ink said, popping back up on his feet. “Of course, strangulation doesn’t explain the blood.” He put a finger to his chin. “Fascinating.”

“What do you mean, fascinating?” Cosmo asked slowly. Their throat tightened and they gripped a portion of the counter again – this time, one not covered in blood.

“Well, it’s basically a murder mystery, isn’t it?” Ink said, eyes rapidly shifting through bright yellows and greens. “I can’t wait to find the culprit!”

“Amen to that,” Fell huffed as she passed by behind Ink and Cosmo. She coughed a bit. “S’cuse me. I’m gonna go check the pantry to see if there’s anything there.”

“Okay! Let us know if you find anything!” Ink called out after her. He turned back to Cosmo with a smile on his face. “So. What else can you find from the corpse?”

“I-” Cosmo stared at him in disbelief. “You’re… really excited about this.”

“Uh-huh!” Ink replied cheerily. A split second passed before his grin faltered and his eyes widened. “Ah, that’s not right, is it?” he said. One of his hands twitched towards the empty sash draped across his torso. “Sorry. I’m not usually like this, I think.”

“You think?” Cosmo muttered. They looked closer at Ink’s sash – it looked like there were little pouches in a line all along it. They must have held something originally, but now they were empty. “…Does that sash have anything to do with it?”

Ink’s hand closed around a portion of the sash. “It used to hold – well, I guess you could call it medication.” He shrugged. “But it got taken away when I got here. It’s probably magic though, and wouldn’t work anyways.” He chuckled and lifted his hands, interlacing his fingers and putting them behind his head. “Oh well.” He lowered his voice a little, leaned in, and added, “Please let me know if I get too excited about a corpse again though, would you?” He leaned back out and smiled. “Thanks! I’m gonna go check the freezer. Maybe we can find a murder weapon.”

Ink skipped off towards the walk-in freezer, and Cosmo was left with the corpse. They took another deep breath and started to look closer at them. Gently, they reached out and pulled the skewed sunglasses off of Fresh’s face. They were folded and set on the counter. Turning their attention back to Fresh’s face, Cosmo stared at it for a second, then shrieked.

“What? What is it? Is something wrong with –  _ oh my god, _ ” Hearts’ voice came from over Cosmo’s shoulder. They didn’t turn around to see him – they were too transfixed on Fresh. “Guys. If you’re squeamish, I really don’t recommend looking at Fresh’s eyes.” Fresh’s right eye looked perfectly healthy compared to the abomination that remained of their mangled left eye. While the right eye was heavily bloodshot – if blood were purple, that is – the left eye looked like it had burst. The socket was hollow, and once the glasses were removed, blood that had pooled in the socket began to trickle down their face.

“Cosmo. Cosmo, love, could you please stick those glasses back on them?”

Broken out of their stunned state, Cosmo quickly grabbed the glasses again and slid them onto Fresh’s face. Only after doing so did they notice that their hands were shaking again. Hearts came over and knelt down by them, gently taking their hands. “Easy now. That wasn’t a pleasant sight, I know. It’s okay, breathe.”

“I’m okay. I’m okay, I promise,” Cosmo said, a bit frantically. “Hearts, could you… could you check their pockets for me? I don’t think-” Their breathing hitched, “-don’t think I can touch them again.”

Hearts nodded and reached in Fresh’s pockets, one and then the other. “Keys,” he noted, pulling out the key to Fresh’s room. He handed them to Cosmo, then unzipped Fresh’s fanny pack and stuck his hand inside. He frowned, then pulled out a small bottle. “…Oh my god,” he muttered.

“What? What is it?” Cosmo asked.

Hearts held up the bottle for them. “Poison. Like the kind we saw in the infirmary,” he said. “D’you think that’s what…?”

“That’s one explanation,” Cosmo said, echoing what Ink had said earlier. “Can I keep this for now? I want to go compare it with stuff in the infirmary,” they decided.  _ Anything to get out of this room. _

“Yeah, go ahead,” Hearts said. “Lots of people still want to look over stuff in here, but I don’t think there’s a lot more we can find. Blood, poison apparently-” He gestured to the bottle Cosmo held. “-and a hollowed eye. Why would anyone here hollow out their eye? That’s just… that’s sick.”

_ Anyone here. _ Cosmo felt their heart stop.  _ Anyone here could be the killer. _ They swallowed hard and then stood up, legs threatening to give out under them for a moment before they steadied. If anyone here could be the killer, that begged the question – who could they trust? Cosmo glanced around. Hearts and Classic, who’d comforted them. Dance, Dream, Reaper, who were looking on the body in horror. Even Killer and Dust, who were whispering anxiously to one another – they didn’t want to die from a failed trial. Cosmo wanted to trust them all. They stood up, backing away from the corpse and letting others move in to look it over. They forced themselves to tear their gaze away and exit the kitchen.

Outside, the cafeteria was empty save for Horror, who sat at the table, hunched over with her hands fisted in her hair. Once the kitchen door clicked shut, Horror looked up. “What’s the verdict?” she asked. “Can you tell who did it?”

Cosmo shook their head. “I haven’t even started thinking about that. I don’t want to suspect anyone.” They paused. “Do you want to investigate at all?”

Horror’s eyes widened slightly and she shook her head. “N-no. Not a good idea for me to go near a-” The words got caught in her throat for a moment, “-a dead body. I was only joking about corpse soup yesterday, but…” she chuckled nervously. “Sorry, you don’t actually know, do you?”

Cosmo’s mouth went dry. “No, I know,” they replied. “Geno told me yesterday.”

Horror pressed her lips into a thin line. “Of course. Nothing is personal among us all.”

“I’m sorry,” Cosmo said, though it felt weak. “I know you probably didn’t want me to know.”

“No taking it back now, is there?” she said. “Anyways, now you know the reason why I’m going to be useless in this investigation.”

Cosmo frowned. “That’s not true,” they said. “If you want to help, you can come with me. I’m investigating the infirmary.”

“The infirmary? Why?” Horror asked.

Cosmo held up the bottle of poison that Hearts had found. “This is from the infirmary. It was in Fresh’s fanny pack.”

Horror took a closer look at the bottle. “Poison?”

Cosmo nodded. “Fresh, Reaper, Hearts and I saw that the infirmary had some yesterday when we went out exploring. Come with me and check it?”

“Yeah. Sounds like a good idea,” Horror agreed.

Cosmo opened the door the infirmary cautiously, just in case there was someone inside. No one was, and they let out a small breath they didn’t realize they’d been holding. Why were they holding their breath? Who did they expect to be in here? The murderer, hiding their evidence?

“If I recall correctly,” Cosmo muttered, “We first discovered there was poison in here when Fresh opened the minifridge.” With Horror close by them, Cosmo approached the minifridge and pulled it open. Poisons lined the shelves in the door, while the transfusion bags were stacked on the shelves in the fridge itself.

Cosmo felt Horror’s hands tighten around their forearm. “Cosmo. Those are bags of blood.”

“Yeah, I know,” they replied, then realized what Horror was getting at and quickly shut the fridge. “Right. Sorry. Are you all right?”

Horror nodded sharply. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”

Cosmo placed their hand over hers and gave it a little bit of a squeeze. “You saw the poison in the door, though?” they asked. When she nodded, Cosmo continued, “I don’t know of anyone who could have taken it, though. In the time I was in here with Fresh, Reaper, and Hearts, no one but Fresh even touched the minifridge. Of course, someone could have taken it while I wasn’t present, but I cant prove or disprove that.”

“Is there any other way someone could have gotten poison?” Horror asked. “What about the cabinets over here?” She let go of Cosmo’s arm and wandered to the cabinets, opening them and rooting through the various bottles inside.

Cosmo thought for a moment, then remembered what had happened yesterday. “Hearts,” they muttered. “Hearts took something out of that cabinet. I don’t know what it was. I meant to ask him, but I got distracted.”

Horror bit her lower lip for a moment while rooting around in the cabinet. “Well… I don’t see any poison. Just prescription medication. Which could probably kill, but not quite like poison.”

“No,” Cosmo muttered, talking a closer look at the cupboard. “Not quite like poison.” They lifted a hand to examine some of the bottles. “And wouldn’t these take a while to kill, anyways?”

“I assume so. The only way to die by these would probably be overdose, and you’d need to wait until the body absorbs the drug.”

“In any case, this is the bottle we found in Fresh’s fanny pack,” Cosmo said, holding up the poison bottle. “If it was used to kill them, it probably-” Cosmo squinted down at the label, “Yeah, the effect is near instantaneous.” They looked up, then at Horror, who was blankly staring at the counter. “Horror? You alright?”

“I thought the kitchen was locked.”

“Come again?”

Horror looked up and stared directly at Cosmo. She gripped the edge of the counter tight. “I thought the kitchen was locked. I didn’t want anyone getting in or tampering with – with the food at night, even though Blue has said the kitchen was off limits.”

“Wait – hold on, what are you saying?” Cosmo asked. “Did you try to lock the kitchen last night?”

“I didn’t just try, I did,” Horror insisted. “Or, well, Blue did. The very first night, I was worried about it being broken into, so Blue locked it and added the rule about no destruction of doors.

“He added the rule?”

Horror nodded. “At the very end of the rule list, there’s a rule that says that more rules can be added as necessary. So Blue did. I don’t know why he obliged, but he said he’d lock the door every night and then open it again for the first person to ask in the morning.”

Cosmo thought for a moment. If what Horror said was true, then no one would have had access all night. And besides that, wasn’t the kitchen supposed to be off-limits at night? “I would assume you’d be the first one in the kitchen this morning, then?”

“I didn’t go in the kitchen,” Horror said. “I… I  _ was  _ the first one in the cafeteria, though. I woke up at the morning announcement and quickly got ready. I was in the cafeteria at around…” She thought for a moment, “eight fifteen. No one else was in there, so I sat down at the table, and then some other people came in… Ink, and then Dust and Hearts. I noticed the kitchen was unlocked around then. I wanted to check, but Hearts kept me at the table.”

Cosmo pursed their lips softly. Horror was the first one in the kitchen. The murder wouldn’t have been able to be committed at night. “Horror-”

“I know how it looks,” she interrupted frantically. “I know – I know that it makes me look suspicious.” Horror looked up at the cabinet and then closed it. “I couldn’t figure out who else to tell. The kitchen being unlocked was important evidence. Or it seemed like it. But…”

“But it put you at the top of the suspect list,” Cosmo said. They paused. They didn’t want to suspect Horror. Far from it. But if Horror had… in any way, if she was connected to the murder, then it was vital that they tell this information to everyone else. Horror didn’t seem to want to meet their gaze. The question was, however, a matter of trust. “I know you don’t want me to tell anyone.”

Horror let out a breath. “But you have to. I know.”

“Not… yet?” Cosmo tried. “Horror, I want to trust you. So… I’m not going to tell anyone. Yet.”

Horror quickly met Cosmo’s gaze and narrowed her eyes. “Are you  _ blackmailing  _ me?”

“No! God, no, I’m not blackmailing you,” Cosmo reassured her. “I just – if I have to say that you were the first one in the cafeteria, I will, but I won’t make you look suspicious without good reason. Also, keep in mind that I might not be the only one who knows that.”

Horror snorted. “What, you think Ink’s going to remember that I was the one he saw when he first came in? He’s got the memory capacity of a goldfish.”

Cosmo lightly bumped Horror in the shoulder. “Don’t be mean.”

“What? It’s true!”

Cosmo stifled a laugh. “Stop that! Stop that, really. Not cool.”

“You’re laughing.”

“Yeah, well, I’m trying not to,” Cosmo said through their teeth as they tried to force down the laughing response. They exhaled shakily. “Okay. I don’t see anything else in here, so I’m going to head back to the cafeteria. You coming with?”

Horror hesitated a moment. “You go. I’m gonna stay here and look around some more.”

Cosmo nodded. “Good luck with that.”

“You too.”

Back in the cafeteria, there didn’t seem to be many people outside of the kitchen. Even from near the double-doored entrance, Cosmo could hear the clamoring inside the kitchen. Which was a miracle in and of itself, since Dust and Killer were arguing very loudly at one of the cafeteria tables.

“-can’t believe someone got to it before me. And they went after Fresh, too – they’re what, nearly six feet tall? In this delicate scenario, logic dictates you go after the small ones, like – I dunno, Ink, or-”

“Like you? Dust, you’re barely taller than five feet; you’re looking at it from your own perspective. Just because you’re too chicken to go after someone taller than you doesn’t mean-”

“Chicken? You calling me a coward?”

“Hell yeah, I’m calling you a coward! If you’re going to risk yourself, you-”

Cosmo cleared their throat. Killer and Dust stopped for a moment and glanced their way – good, because Dust looked like she was about to rip Killer’s throat out. “Are you guys done investigating?”

Killer snorted. “As if there was a lot of investigation to do to begin with. It’s an open and shut strangulation case.”

“Strangulation? They were clearly socked in the gut, that’s why they vomited up blood,” Dust said. “ _ You’re  _ clearly going to get us all killed in the trial.”

“Punched in the stomach? They have markings around their neck, what could explain that?”

“Well obviously, the killer held Fresh’s neck while slamming their fist into their gut. Easy.”

“Oh, sure, the killer was able to hold down a six foot tall guy with a single bare hand.”

“You were suggesting strangulation, and that’s only one extra hand!”

Cosmo interrupted, “Wait, wait – you guys are one hundred percent sure about that?”

Dust sighed. “More or less. I keep second guessing myself because Killer’s an ass who won’t shut up about the strangulation theory.”

“Because I’m right,” Killer shot back.

“Then how does that explain the blood, you idiot?”

“The blood doesn’t have to be from Fresh, you know,” Killer said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “It could have been the killer’s blood.”

“Then the killer would be severely injured,” Dust huffed, “Or at least have blood all over their clothes.”

Cosmo’s eyes widened. “Wait, Dust. Repeat that.”

Dust turned her head towards Cosmo. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“What you just said – about the blood.”

“It would have been all over the killer’s clothes?”

Cosmo smacked their fist into their open palm. “That’s it. We need to check the laundry room.”

Killer and Dust exchanged a look of realization before quickly sprinting out of the cafeteria – though rather than seeming eager to find whatever evidence there may be, it was incredibly obvious that they only wanted to prove the other wrong.

Cosmo ran with them to the laundry room, taking care not to get hit by the door as Killer and Dust tried to close it behind them to keep the other out. Like kindergarteners, Dust and Killer shoved at each other in order to enter the room first. Dust eventually pushed Killer out of the way and entered the room first, leaving a grimacing Killer behind.

“You okay?” Cosmo asked him.

“She kicked me in the balls,” Killer hissed.

“Damn right. Now get over here, soy boy,” Dust shot over her shoulder. “There’s blood smeared on the side of this washing machine.”

That got Killer to stop gripping his crotch in pain and hobble over to where Dust was standing. “Where?”

“Right in between these two.” Dust pointed at a small gap between two washing machines. “You can see it if you pay close attention, but there’s smears near the top and dribbles down the side. The killer probably tried to clean it up off the top but couldn’t reach their hand down between the machines to get the rest.”

Killer’s confused, dazed expression slowly grew clearer as his mouth tilted into a grin. “So the blood in the kitchen  _ could  _ be the killer’s… which means my strangulation theory is plausible!”

“I won’t hesitate to knee your nuts again if you keep gloating.”

“You couldn’t if you tried. I’m prepared.” Cosmo grimaced as Dust’s knee once more collided with Killer’s crotch and he doubled over in pain. “Fuck, I didn’t mean actually do it!”

“You said I couldn’t do it if I tried. So I tried. Guess you’re a liar as well as a stupid soy boy.”

While Killer and Dust squabbled back and forth, Cosmo bent down to peer inside the washers and dryers – maybe they could find a load of laundry that hadn’t been finished. Maybe it would give a clue to the killer. Unfortunately, however, all the machines were empty, and Cosmo was left without any evidence. Was the blood the only thing in this room?

A nagging feeling told them to bend down again and check the dryers. They did so, and caught something inside the machine – something that they, Killer, and Dust had all overlooked. Cosmo opened the dryer door and was greeted with small pieces of fluff stuck to the barrel. They reached out and plucked some if it from the dryer. No doubt about it – it came from someone’s clothing.

“Hey, Killer, Dust. How many people have fluff on their clothing?”

“Uh,” Killer paused for a moment, “There’s some on my jacket. Then, uh… Hearts, Horror, Cross, and Fell. And you, if your puffy things count.”

“Ah, you can count mine out, probably,” Cosmo muttered. Unless they were the murderer, which they weren’t, it would be pointless to connect the fluff in the wash with their own jacket. “Thanks, though.”

“Why did you ask?”

“I found some fluff in the dryer.”

Dust snickered. “Careful answering questions, Killer, you’ll be the next suspect.”

“Dust, shut the fuck up.”

Cosmo decided to leave them to their quarrels for fear that they’d have to witness Dust  _ stabbing _ Killer in the crotch next. With the pieces from the laundry room in mind once more, they headed back to the cafeteria to do what they’d originally planned to do – look over Fresh’s dead body one more time. Not that they were ready to see a corpse again, by any means, but if there was even  _ one  _ more clue as to who did it, Cosmo needed to find it. Their head was already swimming, trying to come up with different explanations for Fresh’s death, but each one ended up too shaky in its theory – that, and the fact that even imagining someone among them committing such a heinous act was too painful to entertain for long.

Cosmo slowly pushed the kitchen door open, preparing themselves for the smell of blood and the sight of a corpse. The scene didn’t hit as strongly as before, but Cosmo still had to take a moment’s pause before approaching any further.

“You’re back,” Hearts noted as they knelt down beside him in front of Fresh’s body. “Find anything in the infirmary?”

Cosmo shook their head. “Not anything more than what I already assumed. The poison came from there. There’s no other place it could have come from.” They paused, then looked at the corpse again. They’d been stripped of their jacket and hat, and Hearts was currently combing through their hair. “What are you looking for?”

“External wounds,” Hearts replied. “Just so we don’t miss anything. Dance thought they might have had their head bashed in, but there’s no head wound. I’ll have to tell him.”

Cosmo watched as Hearts gently set the propeller cap back on Fresh’s head. “Has anyone else been examining the body, or have you been doing it all yourself?”

“Besides you and I, not really. I mean, some people have looked, but no one else really wanted to touch them,” Hearts said. “I figured I was best equipped for the job.”

“How so?” Cosmo asked as they watched Hearts carefully examine the markings on Fresh’s neck. Hearts gently pulled back the collar of their shirt before answering.

“I’ve gone to nursing school for about a year now,” he said. “Figured it would pay better.” The last part was said in a mutter, and he bit his lower lip as he concentrated, squinting closely at Fresh’s neck. “Well, I can’t find any external injuries besides the marks on their neck. I’ve searched them up and down.”

“So… what evidence do we have from them?” Cosmo asked. On the other side of the kitchen, Ink exited the freezer and started to head over to them.

Hearts sighed, sitting back on his heels. “Marks on the neck. Their hollow eye – their other eye is also kind of bloodshot, too. Blood from the mouth… and that’s it besides the blood on the counters and in the sink.”

“That’s it?” Cosmo asked. That wasn’t a lot. Could they really solve a murder on just that? There were fifteen of them. Fourteen to eliminate as suspects and one to find out.

“Well, there was something weird in their mouth!” Ink said all of a sudden. Hearts and Cosmo both looked up at him where he stood on the other side of Fresh. “Like little punctures! Or slices. I dunno. It was bleeding, though!”

“You looked in their  _ mouth?”  _ Hearts asked.

“Well yeah! That’s where they were bleeding, duh!”

Nervously flicking his gaze between the corpse and Ink, Hearts decided to pry open Fresh’s jaw quickly but gently. Cosmo grimaced as Hearts’ fingers were smeared with a bit of blood. Hearts peered closer. “I – he’s right.”

“What?” Cosmo scooted closer.

“There’s a bunch of tiny lacerations,” Hearts said, “Inside their mouth, closer to their throat. It looks like it continues down their throat.”

“Woah,” Cosmo said as they took a look inside Fresh’s throat. “Is there anything that could have caused that?”

“Not that I know of,” Hearts said. “That’s really strange. I can’t identify the cause at all. I can’t even think of one. Maybe they swallowed a bunch of sharp things, but that seems unlikely.”

“Don’t toss that theory out yet!” Ink said, leaning forward to look once again. “In fact, don’t rule anything out until the trial itself. We need to exhaust every possibility. After all, if we don’t get it right, we die.” There was a heavy silence in the air, during which both Cosmo and Hearts gave Ink a hard glare. Ink didn’t seem to be fazed by it at all, and kept on glancing between the both of them and the corpse. “Hearts, you can let go of their jaw now. There’s nothing else in their mouth.”

Hearts quickly let go of Fresh’s jaw, which fell shut. “Yes, I know,” he said quickly. “Did you finish in the freezer?”

“Yep! It was totally normal in there.”

“So no evidence?”

“Nope!”

Hearts sighed and stood up. He had clearly had enough of Ink’s inappropriate cheer. “Great. Well, let me know if you find anything else.” With that, he excused himself from the kitchen.

Ink tilted his head to the side. “Boy, he didn’t seem happy. Was it something I said?” he asked, looking over to Cosmo.

“Corpse. Dead person. Not a happy situation,” Cosmo said.

Ink’s mouth formed an ‘o’ shape before he shut his jaw and solemnly nodded. “Right. Noted. Actually, I should…” Ink trailed off, muttering under his breath as he rooted in his pocket for something before pulling out a pen. Following that, he started to spin in circles, chasing the tail ends of his scarf before snagging one and lifting it up to his face. He began to scribble on it.

No evidence in the freezer. No evidence anywhere. Who was it? Cosmo needed to talk to some more people. Maybe alibis would help the situation – if they could even confirm where people were at night.

A chime came from the loudspeaker. Cosmo’s stomach filled with dread.

_ “Alrighty now! Please put all your investigative tools down – or evidence-hiding tools, if you’re our dearest murderer – and report to the common room immediately. The investigation period is officially over. From there, you will all be escorted to the trial grounds, where our group trial will commence! Good luck to you all!” _

Cosmo felt their throat tighten. No. They needed more time. This couldn’t be it. They couldn’t figure out anything like this. Gripping the edges of their coat, Cosmo desperately tried to think of anything plausible enough for them to present at the trial. Nothing came to mind.

There was a hand on their arm. “Cosmo, come on. We’ve got to go to the trial,” Dance said. Dance? Dance was there? Had he been there the whole time? “Cosmo, come on. Get up.”

Wordlessly, they got to their feet and were pulled out of the kitchen by an over-eager Ink and an exasperated Dance. Before Cosmo knew it, they were standing in the common room among everyone. How did they get there? Had they really just walked there? There was a voice in their ear. Who?

“Cosmo, are you all right?”

They came face to face with Horror, who was looking a little bug-eyed. “I’m fine.”

“You’re as pale as a ghost,” Horror said. “You look like you’re about to faint. Trust me, I know.”

Cosmo took a look at their hands for a moment. “Not much we can do if I do.”

Someone bumped into Cosmo from behind. “Oh, sorry – Didn’t mean that,” said Cross. “Damn, this place is crowded with all sixteen of us.” She winced. “Er. Fifteen.”

Cosmo clenched their jaw tightly and shut their eyes. They restrained themselves from snapping at Cross – it likely wasn’t on purpose, and provoking her temperamental personality wouldn’t be the best idea. “Are we all here?” they asked instead, blinking their eyes open. “All of us?”

Cross looked around for a moment. “Looks like there’s still one or two of us that aren’t here. They should be here in a bit. Probably locking up their bedrooms or something.”

Bedrooms. Right. Did Cosmo lock theirs? They reached into their pockets to check for their keys, but it wasn’t there. “Shit.”

“Seriously, are you all right, Cosmo?” Horror asked them, but they were turning and dashing out of the common room before they could answer her. “ _ Cosmo!” _

Key. They needed to go grab their key. How long had it been sitting in their room alone? All day? They ran through the archway without a thought to what was in front of them, and collided head-on with someone coming out. Cosmo shrieked, and so did the person they ran into. They both fell to the floor. Cosmo rubbed their head, wincing, and pushed themselves to their feet. “Ah, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“It’s fine, it happens,” Fell spoke, grimacing and shaking her head. “What-” she started, then delved into a coughing fit.

Cosmo bent down and helped Fell to her feet, resting a hand on her back as she continued to cough. “Oh my god, are you really okay? Did I do something?”

With another feeble cough, Fell managed to quiet it down and wave her hand before speaking. “No, it’s – you’re fine, I’ve just had a cough all day. Throat’s irritated or something.”

“That’s not good,” Cosmo said. “I hope it feels better.”

“Yeah, me too,” Fell said, waving it off. “What were you actually coming down here for? The common room is that way.”

“She’s right! You both best be heading that way right now for the trial!” a voice said. Cosmo peeked over Fell’s shoulder to see Blue’s eerie, smiling face. “It wouldn’t be fair to the others if you two got more time to weasel your way around the crime scene. Couldn’t have you knowing things that others don’t!” Blue then pressed a finger to his lips, “Or hiding evidence that you didn’t hide before.”

Cosmo clenched their fists. “What? I didn’t murder Fresh.”

“Oh, so touchy and defensive!” Blue commented. “Off to the common room. Chop chop! It’s time for a trial!”

Cosmo and Fell were ushered back into the common room, despite Cosmo’s protests. It looked like they’d have to go get their key after the trial. They had to have just left it in their room this morning. No one would sneak into someone’s room during the day – they’d be seen. They had their key on them last night when they went to bed. They were the last one up in the morning. It would be fine. Cosmo let out a shaky breath.

“All right, folks! Into the elevator!”

Blue’s words bounced around Cosmo’s skull before they finally registered what he was saying and stepped into the elevator. The last time they were in here, there was so much chatter. So much noise, so much shouting. Now, the loudest noise was the sound of the elevator’s machinery churning as they sunk downwards. Down. Down. There were whispers too, of course, but Cosmo didn’t catch what anyone else was saying. Any time they tried to focus, the movements of everyone else or the clanking of the elevator or their own thoughts buzzing about their mind somehow managed to distract them from what they wanted to pay attention to. They stood in the back of the elevator, nerves shaking them to their core.

The elevator came to a halt. The pit of dread in Cosmo’s stomach grew. The door opened. Everyone started to file out. Cosmo was the last one in the trial room. They walked up to their podium quietly. Everyone was still whispering. There were so many whispers. What were they whispering about?

“Thank you one and all for your presence here at today’s momentous occasion!” Blue said, skipping around the ring and plopping himself in the raised throne on the other side of the circle of podiums. He swung a leg over the side of the chair, draping it over the arm. He twirled a little gavel in his hand. “Truly wonderful to see you all here.”

Cosmo glanced to their left. During the mock trial, they remembered Fresh being assigned to the podium next to them, and they expected that very same podium to be empty this time – however, it wasn’t. Propped on a pole stuck to the podium was a portrait of Fresh, set in a decorative frame. A big red X was drawn over their face. They opened their mouth to say something about it, but Dance, who was at the podium on the other side of the portrait, beat them to the punch.

“Is this some kind of sick joke?” he blurted, gesturing to Fresh’s portrait. “The hell is that doing at their spot?”

Blue pouted softly. “It’s not a joke!” he said. “I’d feel awful if they got left out just because they died! Friendship transcends all barriers, you know. Even death.”

“That’s still kind of sick,” Reaper muttered from across the court. “Let the dead stay dead.”

“Okay, enough of that! You all know how this works by now, so…”

Cosmo glanced around the courtroom. One of them. One of the people around them. One of the people they wanted to trust, but had to suspect. One of them killed Fresh. They all had to vote to condemn them, and if they didn’t, then everyone else – including themselves, would die. It wasn’t only their life on the line in this deadly debate arena. Cosmo had to get it right. For everyone’s sake.

Blue twirled the gavel in his hand once more, then smacked it against the flat surface of the chair.

“Let the trial begin!”

  
  



	4. Chapter 1 Trial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Another illustration that may be disturbing accompanies this chapter at the end. Warnings contain possible spoilers for the culprit, so you will find them [listed here](https://pastebin.com/BQmyAqEu) if you need to view them.
> 
> Other than that, there are no new warnings that have not been displayed in previous chapters.
> 
> Huge huge thanks to [Allu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fellusion) for proofreading again! <3

“Let the trial begin!”

Blue’s voiced echoed loudly around the walls of the courtroom. Cosmo looked left and right at the faces around them – nervous, scared, guarded. Blue’s announcement faded into the air, and silence settled in. Nobody wanted to be the first to speak. Cosmo didn’t want to either. After all, beginning the trial would mean sending someone – or everyone _but_ that someone – to their grave.

“Oh come on, what’s with the silence? Not eager to have any debate, are you?” Blue sneered, swinging his legs back in front of his throne and leaning forward, hands on his knees.

“I mean, I didn’t want to be the one to start shit,” Killer said, “But all right. I’ll go first. First we have to figure out how Fresh was killed, and I say it was strangulation.”

“Bullshit,” Dust countered. She learned forward on her podium, gripping the sides as she scowled. “They were obviously socked in the gut until their organs were pulverized and they vomited up that bloody pulp.”

“Being punched until they started vomiting would explain the blood,” Cross said. “And being strangled would explain the markings around Fresh’s neck. But you need to explain both of them at once.”

“And besides,” Reaper cut in, “You’d need a lot of strength to accomplish that without any magic. Fresh is – _was_ one of the biggest and strongest people here.”

“Then it’s simple,” Killer said. “We figure out who’s bigger and stronger.”

Cosmo looked around at the courtroom. Reaper was right – Fresh was tall with a subtle, frightening aura about them. Not many people would have the guts to go after someone like that, let alone the ability. In fact, there were only two people who had the physical ability to take someone like that down.

“Error and Dream,” Cosmo spoke. “Those are the only two people who, at first glance, are bigger and stronger than Fresh.”

The entire courtroom stared at them before Killer spoke up with a grin, “Didn’t think you’d have the guts to call out the first suspects. Nice.”

Cosmo’s eyes widened as they realized what they’d done. Glancing over at Error only gave them a scowl of disdain, while when glancing over to Dream, they saw a mortified expression upon his face. “Wait – no, I didn’t mean-” Cosmo started, then backtracked, “I mean I didn’t _not_ mean it, I just-!”

“I’d suggest you stop now before you dig yourself into a deeper hole,” Dust sighed in exasperation. “So Dream and Error are our primary suspects. Anything to say in your defense before you’re voted off of the plane of mortality?”

“I didn’t kill them,” was all Error had to say, crossing his arms with a huff.

“I would never!” Dream blurted next, gripping onto the podium like his life depended on it. “Not even in this – this precarious situation, I wouldn’t even _think_ of taking the life of anyone. Ever. I swear to you.”

“I’m inclined to believe that Dream’s way too much of a pansy to even hurt a fly,” Cross said. She glanced over in Dream’s direction, across the court, “And trust me, I don’t have any real reason to defend him.”

“I dunno, Cross, maybe that pea-brain of his finally snapped,” Dust suggested.

“Theoretically, it’s entirely possible that he went from himbo to Hulk,” Killer said.

“Wait,” Dance interrupted, “Instead of going after Dream, why not suspect the one who has the most motive? Error barely said anything, and he’s got the most motive out of us all. What better way to destroy the entire multiverse then to take out a good chunk of its most powerful forces all at once while they’re stuck playing a killing game without their magic? Think about it. It would be a perfect opportunity for him, and we all _know_ he’s not above something like that.”

The courtroom was silent for a moment. “It makes sense,” Reaper said. “Does that mean we’re voting for him?”

“Voting time already?” Blue piped up, spinning the gavel in his hand.

“If you do, you die,” Error said, glancing from Reaper to Blue and back again. “I didn’t kill them. No matter how annoying they were, I didn’t do it, and unless you want to die alongside everyone else except for the real killer, you’ll stop wasting your time on me.”

Cosmo pursed their lips before speaking up. “I did see him last night,” they said. “It was just after midnight. I heard footsteps outside of my room and caught him heading to the laundry room. We both went there and then returned to our rooms.”

“Then that seals the deal!” Dust said, slamming her fist into the palm of her open hand. “Error’s the killer, and he did it last night when everyone else was asleep.”

“I don’t even have my magic; how do you think I’d do that?” Error grumbled.

“Your own two hands, idiot,” Dust huffed. “You and Dream are only suspect because you’re the two that are stronger than Fresh. “

 _Own two hands._ Cosmo recalled the very first day they were here – it was a couple of days ago, but they recalled it like it happened five minutes ago. Cosmo had reached out for the back of Error’s jacket, fingers digging into the wool of his coat, and yanked him to safety. Instead of thanking them for saving his life, he’d immediately turned around and snapped at Cosmo for fear that they may have touched him. The fear that they saw in his eyes was no joke, either. Cosmo didn’t believe he would have been all right if they _had_ touched him. And then, there was how angry and scared he’d been when he’d been wrestling with Nightmare, and when Dream had him pinned. The fear in his eyes was the same.

“Actually, I agree with Error,” Cosmo said. “I don’t think that he could have done it if he wanted to.”

Error looked at Cosmo in bewilderment while Dust laughed. “Really? Care to explain?”

Cosmo glanced over at Error, swallowing before saying, “Error’s terrified of touch. You really think he would have been able to strangle Fresh with his hands?”

Error scowled. “Stay out of-”

“How did you know he was afraid of touch?” Ink interrupted, leaning forward onto his podium. He looked like he wanted to hop on top of it – or maybe he was just stretching in order to get a better view. Cosmo didn’t think he was even five feet tall, so it was plausible. Maybe.

“Well, the very first day we were here, he almost stepped out the front doors – you know, across from the common room. I grabbed the back of his coat before he could fall, and then he got mad at me because he thought I touched him.” Cosmo glanced over at Error again, who was giving a murderous glare to Ink. “And he wasn’t exactly fearless when he was wrestling Nightmare yesterday.”

“I can attest to that,” Nightmare said. “He was rather frightened of me, though I suppose I’m so used to people cowering at my aura that I forgot we didn’t have our magic.” She glanced over at Error. “ _Are_ you afraid of touch?”

Error grit his teeth. Cosmo realized he was in a rather peculiar spot – if he said no, he’d be voted for, but it didn’t look like he wanted to agree either. “I’m not _afraid_ of it. I just don’t like it.”

“That’s Error-speak for yes,” Ink chirped.

“Shut the fuck up, short-stack.”

“So that just leaves Dream!”

Error fell quiet again and looked over at Dream – and so did everyone else. Dream raised a finger, pointing at the center of the court, “I swear to you, I would _never_ do anything like that!”

“But see, the point isn’t whether you would or wouldn’t do something,” Reaper said. “It’s what the evidence points to. Like it or not, we have to suspect everyone, not just the people we judge are most likely to do it based on things we think we know about them. That’s why you called Error and Dream out, right, Cosmo?”

Cosmo nodded. “Yeah.” Of course, it wasn’t like they had much of a bias to begin with. It wasn’t like they had zero reminders of how little they knew everyone. Error was the only one they’d met before, and he was pretty clear on not wanting any sort of friendly association. “If you really didn’t do it, we’ll be able to prove it, so you shouldn’t have to worry.”

They glanced over to Dream, whose eyebrows furrowed in concern before he nodded. “I understand. That doesn’t make me less insulted, but I see how it’s necessary.”

Cosmo bit their lower lip. _Yeesh, what a morality complex._ “First of all,” they started warily, “We need to determine if there were any eyewitnesses to any other suspicious activity during the night. Anyone?”

“Obviously not,” Cross said, “because you all voted for a curfew and then someone broke it, causing Fresh to get murdered.”

“Curfew? What curfew?” Ink said.

“The one _you_ voted for?” Geno supplied. “Were you out at night?”

“Oh! You mean that! No, I was in my room, sleeping.”

“I don’t know about that. How can we verify that anyone was in their rooms at all?” Fell asked. “Even if no one saw Dream, we can’t prove that he never went into the kitchen at night unless someone was in his room the whole time.”

“Exactly,” Killer said, “So if anyone wants to confess to sleeping with Mr. Sunshine, now would be the time.”

“No one was in my room last night,” Dream said. “I was inside at the announcement, and I left at about eight thirty in the morning. Reaper saw me this morning – we left at about the same time.”

“I did,” Reaper said. “But that only proves where you were this morning. You could have slipped out to the kitchen any time at night.”

“Could he?” Ink asked, putting a finger to his chin. He glanced over to Cosmo and made eye contact. “As far as I recall, the kitchen door had a lock on it.”

Cosmo narrowed their eyes. “Yeah… the kitchen door had a lock on it. But when we went to investigate, it was unlocked,” they said. It wasn’t exactly a lie, but they tensed anyway. They glanced to Horror, who shook her head slightly. Cosmo pursed their lips, not liking how this was turning out. They couldn’t prove that anyone was out at night besides Error, who couldn’t have murdered Fresh because of his fear of touch. Dream, notwithstanding his insistence that he would never do such a thing, had no evidence against him besides the fact that he was big and strong. Horror, however, directly told Cosmo that she was in the cafeteria that morning and had seen the unlocked kitchen door. Cosmo didn’t want to believe it was her, but what other evidence did they have? On the other hand, if it _was_ her, how would she have done it? She certainly wasn’t strong enough for any of the methods Killer and Dust were suggesting. More than that, if Horror has actually done it, why would she have told Cosmo what he saw that morning? How would that benefit her? And the real question – if she didn’t do it, who did?

“Was it locked last night?” Nightmare asked. “Horror’s always around the kitchen. I have no doubt she was the last one there.”

“I didn’t lock it myself,” Horror said, “Blue did.” She glanced upwards towards where Blue was sitting on the tall judge’s seat. “The very first night we were here, he said that he’d lock the kitchen at night and then open it for the next person to ask.”

“So what you’re saying is that Dream could have waltzed in and asked Blue to unlock the kitchen door?”

“Theoretically, yes,” Horror said. “It’s completely possible that he could have gone there and opened the kitchen door by calling for Blue to do so.”

Before Dream could furiously deny all of the accusations, Cosmo decided to interrupt. “I think you’re onto something with the lock, but there’s another important question we have to answer,” they said. “How would he get Fresh in there? What sane person would follow someone into the kitchen all alone in the middle of the night, especially considering the circumstances and how much easier Dream could take them down?”

“I wouldn’t, though,” Dream grumbled.

“Exactly, Dream,” Nightmare said. “Everyone here – well, besides Cosmo – knows that you wouldn’t.”

Dream looked surprised. “Wait – you’re defending me now?”

Nightmare slid her gaze towards Dream’s podium, directly to her right. “No,” she said, “Your disarming countenance is exactly my _point._ There are a lot of people here who trust in your morals. You could have used that to your advantage, getting Fresh to trust and follow you before murdering them in cold blood.” The corners of Nightmare’s mouth turned upwards. “And then you could have left them in the kitchen until morning.”

Dream looked absolutely betrayed.

“Sounds like a solid theory to me,” Killer said. “Dust?”

“For once I don’t disagree. Whatever method Dream used, he definitely could have done it,” Dust said. “And that’s enough for me.”

“So what, are we going to vote now?” Cross asked.

“You can’t vote yet!” Dream said. “I didn’t do it! You’ll be killing us all!”

“And if you did do it, we can vote now and get this over with,” Error huffed. “Gotta say, if it was you, it was a pretty dumb move to leave all that blood, especially if you had time in the middle of the night to clean it all up.”

“I told you it _wasn’t me!”_

“I don’t think we should vote yet,” Hearts said. “There’s a lot of questions left unanswered and evidence left untouched.” He paused. “Not only that, but I really don’t think Dream could kill someone, either.”

Hearts was right. There were a lot of questions and a lot of evidence. Cosmo thought for a moment, wondering how they could prove Dream wasn’t the killer. Everyone was convinced the murder happened sometime during the night, but Error had a point.

“Hey Error, can you repeat that?” Cosmo asked.

“Huh?” Error said. “What, the fact that Dream’s a sloppy murderer and an idiot?”

“I’m not a murderer!” Dream insisted once more.

“Well, sort of,” Cosmo said. “Why do you think he’s a sloppy murderer?”

Error scoffed. “Well obviously because of all the blood. There was blood on the counter and in the sink and on Fresh’s body. Dream didn’t even take the time to clean it up.”

“I didn’t take the time to clean it up because I _didn’t murder anybody!_ ” Dream said.

“I know, now shut up!” Cosmo snapped. Dream fell silent, crossing his arms. Cosmo looked back to Error. “You think he’s a sloppy murderer because there was blood everywhere and it wasn’t cleaned up. But… what if he just didn’t have time to clean it up?”

Error narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean? He’d have the whole night to do it.”

Cosmo shook their head. “…No, I don’t think he would.”

“What? Why?” Geno asked. “Do you think he was afraid of getting caught in the act?”

Ink snapped his fingers and pointed directly at Cosmo. “They’re right. The mess wasn’t cleaned up because whoever the culprit was didn’t have time at all. Which means…” He gestured for Cosmo to finish.

“The murder didn’t happen at night,” Cosmo said.

“Exactly,” Ink agreed. “And what’s more, I don’t think it could have happened at night at all! At least, not in the kitchen.”

“What do you mean? The kitchen could have been unlocked at any time,” Hearts said.

“Nope!” Ink said. “Hey Horror, when did Blue lock the kitchen?”

“Right as the nighttime announcement went off,” Horror replied. Her eyes widened. “Oh. You mean the fact that the kitchen is off limits at night anyways.”

“Yup!” Ink said. “There’s a rule on our tablets stating that both the cafeteria and the kitchen are completely off limits at night.”

“I’m surprised you remembered that sort of thing,” Cross said.

“Well, I only sort of did,” Ink said sheepishly. “I was thinking earlier, why couldn’t the killer have broken down the locked kitchen door? ‘Cause Dream _tooootally_ could have kicked it down with his beefy legs, no sweat!”

“I – I’m not _that_ strong.”

“Whatever, you could have gotten it open somehow,” Ink said. “But then I remembered, wait, there’s a rule about that. You can’t break stuff down. And so I opened up the rules and also saw that the cafeteria and kitchen were off limits at night.”

“Nighttime ends at eight, and I saw him at eight thirty,” Reaper said. “Do you think he could have gotten away with murder in half an hour?”

“Nope! ‘Cause he would have had to get away with it in twenty minutes or so,” Ink said. “I was at the cafeteria at eight twenty.”

“Besides, the morning announcement woke a lot of us up,” Geno said. “Wouldn’t we have heard the commotion if he murdered Fresh with his bare hands?”

“All the way across the first floor? The room are on the opposite side of the building,” Reaper said. “It’s becoming less likely that Dream did it, but I don’t think we would have heard anything if he did.”

“I don’t think we would have heard anything either,” Nightmare said. “Dream’s not dumb enough to let them scream as he strangles them.”

Dream scowled. “For the last time, I didn’t-”

“But twenty minutes wouldn’t be enough to do all of that,” Hearts said. “I don’t think strangulation – or beating them up – was the murder method.”

Cosmo furrowed their brows for a moment, then finally realized what Hearts was getting at. “That’s right,” they said. “There’s another possible way that Fresh could have died.”

“Well, why didn’t you tell us?” Error snapped.

“I wasn’t thinking of it at the time,” Cosmo replied. “I was just thinking of ways to clear your _name._ And Dream’s.”

“I can clear my own name, thanks,” Error grumbled.

“Oh, because you did such a good job with that,” Cross laughed.

“Shut up.”

“ _Anyways,_ ” Cosmo said, reaching into their jacket pocket, “Hearts and I found this inside of Fresh’s fanny pack.” They held up the vial of poison they’d found earlier, showing it off to the courtroom.

“Poison?” Geno asked. “Where would that have come from?”

“The infirmary,” Cosmo said. “Horror and I checked it out earlier during the investigation period.”

“So someone went into the infirmary, grabbed the poison, and then forced or tricked Fresh into drinking it,” Dust said. “That explains the blood. When you’re poisoned, you can cough up blood and shit.”

“But that doesn’t explain the markings on their neck,” Killer countered. “There’s red markings on Fresh’s neck, like someone grabbed it. How do you explain _that?_ ”

“Actually,” Hearts said, “I was looking at them earlier, and it looked like Fresh may have been squeezing their own neck. If they were choking and coughing up blood because of the poison, then the common response is to grab their own neck in an attempt to ground themselves and to stop it.”

Killer folded his arms. “Alright, you have a point there. So poison explains both mine and Dust’s points about the murder method. But now everyone’s a suspect again.”

“Why’s that?” Dance asked.

“Because you didn’t need to be tall and strong in order to kill Fresh in the first place,” Killer said. “You could trick them into drinking poison. So nobody’s out of the question anymore.”

 _Right._ Even though Error and Dream were cleared of suspicion during the night, the poison brought up an entirely new opportunity that threw everyone back into the ring. Cosmo looked over at Dream, who had only had a brief moment of relief before being thrust back into the role of suspect once again. His eyes narrowed and his brow wrinkled. His hands tightly gripped the podium in front of him. _Poor guy._ Dream met Cosmo’s gaze for a moment before speaking up again. “So? How do we narrow it down?”

“I – I don’t know,” Cosmo said. “The infirmary was open to everyone. Anyone could have gone in at any time yesterday to get the poison, so it’s not like we can rule anyone out by determining who had access to the poison.”

“Well, we can confirm who was at least in the infirmary,” Dance said. He glanced over at Cosmo. “You went to explore the whole place. I’m certain you ended up in there at some point.”

Cosmo nodded. “Yeah. I went to explore, but Reaper, Hearts, and-” they hesitated, “-Fresh were with me at the time.”

“Well, did any of you see each other take the poison?” Dance asked, glancing around between Reaper, Hearts, and Cosmo.

“That’s assuming the poison was taken from the infirmary at that time,” Hearts said. “And that it was one of us three. What motive would any of us have to murder?”

“I don’t know, I thought we weren’t going to assume anything,” Dance huffed.

“Besides,” Reaper said, “We all went through the medicine cabinets at some point. Any of us could have taken something to poison Fresh with.”

“But why?” Hearts said. “It was mostly medicine. And besides, when we were taking the medicine, we all saw what it was for. You pulled out an inhaler for Dust, and I think Fresh took some vitamins. Nobody took anything else.”

Cosmo pursed their lips. There was something wrong with Hearts’ statement, but they couldn’t quite figure out what it was. They didn’t have much chance to think on it though, because the next moment, Reaper said it for them.

“No, that’s a lie,” Reaper said, leaning forward onto her podium. “Hearts, I saw you take something out of the cabinet and pocket it yesterday. You didn’t show any of us what it was. I didn’t think much of it because I was focused on getting Dust her inhaler, but I know for a fact you took something.” Reaper straightened her posture. “For all we know, it could have been the poison.”

“Wh – what?” Hearts asked. “I didn’t take any poison!”

“You’re not denying the fact that you took something,” Cosmo said. “In fact, I actually saw it too. I was going to ask you what it was, but Reaper came up to me and asked for help reading the inhaler’s label before I could.” Cosmo finished, and Hearts hesitated in replying. Something wasn’t quite right. Cosmo didn’t believe that Hearts actually took the poison, but why was that? They knew there was some piece of evidence in the back of their brain, but they couldn’t remember it – and Hearts’ nervousness wasn’t helping his case.

“So what was it?” Dance said. “What did you take, _Hearts?_ ” he said, spitting his name like it was a curse.

“I – it was just some prescription medicine,” Hearts confessed.

Dance scoffed. “Sure. I’m ready to vote now if you guys are.”

The courtroom burst into chaos. Cosmo nearly had to cover their ears. Dance, Dust, and a couple of others were fighting to cast the vote now, while Hearts, Dream, and a few more were shouting that there wasn’t enough evidence. While it was true there were several things condemning Hearts at the moment, Cosmo knew that voting now would be a bad idea.

“Everyone, _quiet!_ ” Nightmare shouted across the courtroom. Her voice cut right through the noise everyone else was making, causing it to die down as fast as it had risen. “If enough of us really want to vote, we should put _that_ to a vote, unless anyone has any other evidence to bring to the table.”

_Think, Cosmo. Everyone’s lives are on the line._

“Hold on,” Horror spoke. “Reaper. Cosmo. Where did Hearts take the medicine from?”

“The cabinet,” Reaper spoke. “Why?”

Cosmo gasped. “The cabinet didn’t have any poison in it,” they blurted.

Dance narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure?”

Cosmo nodded. “Positive,” they said. “Horror and I checked during the investigation. It was filled with prescription medicine, and the one next to it just had some over the counter stuff, which is consistent with what Hearts said.”

“The medicine could definitely kill on an overdose,” Horror said, “But an overdose would take too long to produce the sort of effect that we saw on the corpse. Fresh would likely pass out before they could get blood on the counter and inside the sink basin.”

“I still want to know what he took,” Dance huffed. “Even if it wasn’t the poison, it could be important to the investigation.”

“I think,” Cosmo said, “that if we can confirm it wasn’t the poison, we should leave it alone, actually. It was just medicine. That’s pretty private, Dance.”

Dance blinked, opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish. “I – fine. Then who took the poison? Can we confirm sightings of anyone else in the infirmary?” The courtroom was silent again. No one spoke up. Dance sighed and put his fingers to his temples. “ _Fine._ Then we should move to the murder method.”

“Murder method?” Geno asked. “I thought we already concluded it was poison.”

“No duh,” Dance said, “But how did the killer get Fresh to take it? It’s not like anyone could just hand them a vial of poison and say ‘here, drink up!’ That would be stupid, no matter who gave them the poison.”

“The killer would have had to disguise it somehow,” Fell said. “Food or drink would have been the easiest.”

“But why would Fresh accept food from someone random?” Classic said. “Who would they have trusted enough to give them food?”

Slowly, everyone’s gaze turned to Horror, who was paling faster by the minute. Her body visibly tensed, and her knuckles grew white as she gripped her podium. “I know what you’re thinking,” she said, “And I’m telling you, it wasn’t-”

“But who else could it be?” Error huffed. “Everyone else blindly trusted you to cook their meals. I don’t know why we didn’t think of this as soon as the poison was mentioned.”

“And plus, you’re the one who knew about the door locking rule,” Cross said. “You could have come back in the morning, gotten Blue to open the door, and given Fresh some poisoned food right then and there. And you didn’t have to stick around to watch them die, so you could have slipped back to your bedroom before anyone else got there.”

“How would I have time to put the poison in the food? What meal could I make in five minutes that I could slip poison into without Fresh noticing?” Horror hissed. She gripped the podium tighter. Her shoulders rose slightly, and her eyes darted about the courtroom.

“You didn’t have to,” Fell said. “You could have made the poisoned food the previous night, locked it up, and given it to Fresh in the morning.”

Cosmo looked over at Horror, who refused to make eye contact with them. “There’s… also the fact that the body discovery announcement was delayed,” they said. “Fresh might have slipped away just as Ink came into the kitchen.”

“That’s right. The announcement went off as soon as I went into the kitchen,” Ink said, “but I’m not quite sure that has to do with the poison.”

Horror snapped her head towards Ink. “What do you mean?”

Ink ignored her, instead turning to Blue and asking, “Hey, Blue, what are the exact rules for the body discovery? Like, when does it go off? ‘Cause I doubt it would go off for the killer discovering their own victim.”

Blue grinned. “Tahaha, that’s right! Astute observation,” he commented. “But what makes you think I can say anything? It would ruin the fairness of the trial.”

“How can we have a fair investigation if the rules and instances you put in place are unclear?” he asked, pressing a finger to his chin.

Blue pouted. “Okay, fine,” he said. “The rule is that the body discovery announcement goes off when three or more people discover a body. Happy?”

Ink clapped his hands together. “Yup!” he said. “Because that means Horror can definitely be the killer.”

“What?!” Horror said. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that the three people obviously doesn’t include the murderer. And the announcement went off when I entered the room, which made four people – you, me, Cosmo, and Fell. So you could totally be the culprit!” Ink said.

“And what’s more,” Dust said, “is that Ink just automatically eliminated everyone else aside from three people from being the killer. And the evidence overwhelmingly points to one person.”

“No,” Horror snapped, “no, it’s not _me._ I didn’t poison Fresh. I didn’t even enter the kitchen that morning before Fell, Cosmo, and I did.”

Cosmo felt a lump in their throat. It didn’t add up. If the killer could only be themselves, Horror, or Fell, and all the evidence pointed to Horror…

“And plus,” Killer said, “Dust, Cosmo and I went to the laundry room earlier. If you stayed to watch Fresh die, and you got blood all over your clothes, you’d have to use the laundry room, right?”

“I didn’t kill them!” Horror hissed.

“Well it doesn’t matter what you say anymore, because we found blood on one of the laundry machines,” Killer said nonchalantly. “Oh, and Cosmo found some fluff in the drier. Fluff like the kind that comes from a jacket like yours,” he said, pointing to the fluffy collar around Horror’s neck.

_But why would Horror tell them about the kitchen lock?_

“I did,” Cosmo said. “I also touched some of the blood on accident when I was first in there. It was still warm, meaning the murder was recent. So if Fresh died from poison in the morning…” they sighed. “I’m sorry, Horror. It doesn’t look good.”

“So let’s go over it again,” Classic said. “We think Horror did it because… why? Why would Horror do it?”

“I mean, it’s not like she hasn’t killed people before,” Geno muttered. “She wouldn’t have much of a problem with it.”

“Of course I’d have a problem with it!” Horror said. “You have no idea why I even killed back then, you gossiping bunch of-”

“And her sister’s still alive,” Nightmare muttered. “She would want to go see her.”

“Stop it!” Horror said, slamming her fist on the podium. “Stop talking about my life like you know anything at _all!_ ”

“Alright, then,” Dance said, “Let’s just look at the facts, then. Fresh was poisoned sometime between eight o’clock and eight twenty, when Ink came into the cafeteria.”

“You knew about the kitchen locks, and you’re the one everyone trusts with food,” Cross said, “So you wouldn’t have any problem getting Fresh into the kitchen in the morning and giving him the poisoned food.”

“And it was fluff from your jacket that was found in the laundry room,” Dust said.

“And then you were the first one in the cafeteria this morning,” Fell said, “putting you at the top of the suspicion list. Not to mention the fact that you were part of the only three that could be considered the murderer.”

Cosmo blinked. _Wait._

“Anything to say in your defense, Horror?” Classic said. “Please, if you can. I don’t think any of us want to convict you, but we’re running out of options.”

_Hold on a second._

“I didn’t kill them,” Horror said. “I know how it looks, but I swear to you, I didn’t poison anybody. I might want to get out of here like the rest of you, but I don’t want to kill anyone.”

“Wait,” Cosmo finally said. “Hold on. There was something someone said… something that didn’t make sense.”

“Something that didn’t make sense?” Classic asked.

Cosmo nodded. “An inconsistency in someone’s argument. Someone said something. Something that they shouldn’t have known,” they said. “Something that only I and Horror and one other person know. And it was definitely not the person who said it.”

“Well, spit it out, then,” Dance said. “It’s no good keeping evidence to yourself.”

“I know, just let me think for a moment,” Cosmo said.

_“Fresh was poisoned sometime between eight o’clock and eight twenty.”_

_“You knew about the kitchen locks, and you’re the one everyone trusts with food.”_

_“The fluff from your jacket was in the dryer.”_

**_“You were the first one in the cafeteria this morning.”_ **

“Fell,” Cosmo said. “You said that Horror was the first one in the cafeteria this morning. How did you know that?”

Fell blinked. “Sorry, what?”

Cosmo stared her down. “You said that Horror was the first one in the cafeteria this morning. Earlier, while Horror and I were investigating, she confessed to me that she was the first one in the cafeteria. She saw the unlocked kitchen, but didn’t have time to check it out because then Ink came in. Ink’s the only other one who would have known this, and he hasn’t said anything about it throughout this entire trial,” they said. Turning to look at Ink, they asked him, “Ink, did you tell anyone that Horror was in the cafeteria before you this morning?”

Ink shook his head. “Nope! I didn’t even remember she was there. Thinking about it now though, she totally was. Can’t believe I didn’t mention it! Sounds important.” Ink smiled and blinked. “Why is it important, by the way?”

“Because I think we might have just found our killer,” Cosmo said. “Fell. You were also one of the three people who could be the killer, right?”

Fell narrowed her eyes. “That’s ridiculous. Fresh wouldn’t have trusted me to give them food.”

“Maybe so, but you told me the very first night – don’t trust anyone, because more than half of us are experienced killers. I’m sure you could have figured out some way to get them to take it,” Cosmo said.

“But Horror was the one who knew about the locks!” Fell said. “How do you explain that?”

“Horror was the one who _told_ us about the locks. That doesn’t necessarily mean she was the only one who knew about them,” Cosmo said. “Plus, the laundry room. I found fluff in the dryer. And you know what? It was white. The same color as _yours,_ and not Horror’s – which is more yellow.”

Fell’s scowl only deepened. “It’s also the same color as Killer’s, and the same color as Cross’. Couldn’t it be a coincidence?”

“A coincidence like the fact that I ran into you while heading to my room at the end of the investigation?” Cosmo said. “What were you doing back there, Fell? Putting away your clean laundry?”

The courtroom was silent again. Fell was also silent for several moments. She pressed her lips together in a thin line, then closed her eyes and dipped her head. “Alright. I know when I’ve lost.”

“I told you it wasn’t me! Backstabbing bitch, you just tried to get the rest of us killed!” Horror burst, shouting across the room at Fell. “I bet you introduced the curfew idea and the whole roll call thing _just_ so you could work around it and pin your shit on someone else!”

“Horror, that’s enough,” Dream said. “We’re all feeling angry and betrayed right now. You can yell later, but right now…” he sighed, “We need to vote.”

Cosmo blinked. That’s right. Voting. They looked over at Fell, who refused to meet anyone’s eyes. Was this really okay? Sending her to her death? Cosmo looked at the tablet in front of them. All they had to do was vote for Fell, and it would be over. Still, something held them back. Something was still missing… so many things still weren’t explained. Fell was right, just a little bit – how could she get Fresh to trust her enough to take the poison? Fresh hated her and her language and her attitude. Not to mention, there were still a couple of things that didn’t make sense. Cosmo knew that not every aspect of the mystery would make sense in the end, but they still had their doubts. What about Fresh’s eye? The lacerations in their throat? Those didn’t add up. What caused those?

“Are you all ready?” Blue said, waving his gavel in the air. “Any last words before we vote?”

Error took the opportunity to mumble, “Not really, except I’m surprised that a parasite like Fresh could die by poison.”

Cosmo’s world screeched to a halt.

_“Stop the vote!”_

Blue tilted his head and stared at Cosmo, letting out a soft chitter that sounded like a laugh. “What do you mean, stop the vote? Everyone else is ready.”

“No, I think we made a crucial oversight,” Cosmo said. “I think… I think if we vote now, we’ll get it wrong.”

“Cosmo, you just outed Fell as the murderer. You proved it was her,” Horror said. “She even admitted it.”

“Yes, but there are some things that aren’t resolved yet. Such as-” Cosmo turned and stared directly at Error, “-why did you say Fresh was a parasite? Somehow, I don’t think that’s just a metaphor.”

“What, you think Fresh is a real parasite?” Classic snorted. “That’s ridiculous.”

Error sharply turned his gaze and squinted at Classic. “You didn’t know they were a parasite?” Error said. “Fresh – they’re a _literal parasite._ ” Error glanced back to Cosmo. “The kind of parasite that feeds off of people’s bodies and then leaves them to rot. I’d expect it from Cosmo, but what the hell? Did everyone else really not know?”

“I knew!” Ink chirped. “Sort of. Fresh mentioned it to me once, but I kind of forgot, and then you mentioned it now, and I was like _ohhh,_ because you know I was super weirded out by the fact that Fresh didn’t just hop hosts!”

“Okay, Ink,” Error said, “You don’t count.”

“Hey, but I knew! That’s kind of mean, Error.”

“Well I’m mean, get over it,” Error growled.

“This is wasting our time,” Nightmare snapped. “We need to vote. This trial has gone on far too long. This information of parasites is extremely irrelevant.”

“No, Cosmo’s right,” Error said, grinning and shaking his head. “For someone who doesn’t know a lot about the rest of us, you’re a pretty clever bastard. I get what you’re saying. You think Fresh didn’t die, and instead hopped hosts.”

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking,” Cosmo said.

“Hold up, I’m still a little caught back on the parasite thing,” Dust said. “That’s not possible, is it? Our magic is restricted.” Dust held up her arm band. “Wouldn’t Fresh just have… died if they were a parasite? If they even _are._ That’s really hard to believe there, buddy.”

“Not as hard to believe as multiverse theory, and Cosmo picked that up pretty quick,” Error said. “Also, I don’t think the parasite is magical enough for the bands to kill them.”

“How in the world would Fresh even hop hosts?” Cosmo asked. “What – what does the parasite even look like?”

“Hell if I know,” Error said. “They just said it to me once in passing. Because I wouldn’t make a good host or whatever, because I’m a glitch.”

“Oh! Oh, I know!” Ink said, raising his hand high into the air and bouncing on his feet like a third grader. “Okay, so I actually saw them do it once!”

“You… saw them do it?” Dust asked, raising an eyebrow. “Hop hosts?”

“Yep!” Ink affirmed. “They totally did it in front of me. It was super cool! They’d tied up this person from some outlying universe and they were super scared and it was like, why are you scared, you’re about to be possessed! That’s so cool! But then like, Fresh crawled out of the old host’s throat, and-”

“Hold on, did you say throat?” Cosmo asked.

“Yeah, throat! Fresh is actually some wriggly bug parasite thing with tentacle limbs, about the size of a baseball. But they can squeeze right down your throat! The old host was coughing up a bunch of blood and grasping at their throat and it was _so_ cool, but then the real cool part was how they just crawled down the new host’s throat after! And the _new_ host coughed up a bunch of blood and got it all over themselves and it was freaky, but cool!”

“If the new host got blood all over themselves,” Classic said, “then they would have had to wash all their clothes. In the laundry room.”

“Hold on, I haven’t even gotten to the coolest part!” Ink huffed. “After Fresh left the old host, their eye totally burst! Apparently the eyes turn purple as Fresh feeds off the host, and when they’re done with them, it just. Pop!” Ink made fireworks motions with his hands.

“That explains the bust eye behind their glasses,” Hearts said.

“And if the parasite crawls out of the host, that explains the lacerations inside of Fresh’s throat that Ink saw,” Cosmo said. “And of course, like Classic said, the person who they possessed, the person who had to clean the blood off of their clothes – that’s you, isn’t it, Fell? Or should I say Fresh?”

Fell gripped her podium tightly. “That’s ridiculous. Fresh isn’t a parasite. You’re just speculating now,” she said. “Or are you trying to kill everyone? Maybe _you_ did it, Cosmo. You’re one of the three. Maybe you want everyone to get it completely wrong.”

Cosmo flinched, but held their ground. “No. I ran into you right before the trial, and you told me your throat was sore,” they said. “Why would you tell me that? Did a parasite crawl down it recently?”

“But what about the poison?” Fell argued. “What would the poison be for?”

“A ruse,” Cosmo fired back. “We talked about this earlier – Hearts, Reaper, Fresh and I were in the infirmary when we explored. _Fresh_ was the one to open the fridge with the poison. They could have easily slipped it onto their person then!”

“But you didn’t see it, did you?” Fell said. “You can’t prove anything.”

“I already have proof enough,” Cosmo said. “And then, the next morning, you lured Fell into the kitchen. Maybe you were already trying to leave your old host, coughing and wheezing. You could have played on her sympathy and gotten her close enough to strike.”

Fell scowled. “You’re grasping at straws!”

“And I think you’re making weak defenses to save your skin,” Cosmo said. They glanced at the rest of the court for a moment, then back at Fell – or _Fresh,_ actually. “Just to be nice, I’ll put together a little timeline for you, and then we can finally end this.”

“End this?” Fresh said, the fronds of Fell’s hair falling into their eyes. “If you want to murder everyone else here. Aren’t you trusting others’ accounts a little too much? Aren’t you being naïve? Remember what I told you?”

“I remember what _Fell_ told me,” Cosmo said, “And she told me to trust no one, including herself. So if you’re trying to use that as your closing argument, well. I’m afraid mine’s going to be better.” They took a deep breath, closed their eyes for just a moment, and began.

“Yesterday, when we were exploring the building, the killer, Hearts, Reaper, and I went into the infirmary. The killer opened the **minifridge with the poison in it** and had the perfect opportunity to slip out a vial for later. They immediately pocketed it and went about their day as usual.”

“This morning, at eight o’clock, the morning announcement went off. The killer was already outside the cafeteria at this time, but couldn’t go inside, because **the cafeteria and the kitchen are off limits at night** . As soon as the announcement sounded, they went in and unlocked the kitchen. Fell, who was actually our victim in this case, was the first to arrive, but our killer **lured her into the kitchen** , and that’s where they struck.”

“ **The killer was a parasite** , and left their old host as soon as Fell was close enough. **Their eye burst, and lacerations in their throat** were formed from the parasite crawling out of their throat. They also **coughed up blood** , which explains the blood on their clothes and the blood surrounding them. The parasite latched onto Fell, **crawling down her throat** and causing her to cough up blood, adding to the mess in the room and getting it all over herself.”

“The killer, now in Fell’s body, left the kitchen and cafeteria. They immediately changed clothes and went to go wash them in the laundry room. But they made several mistakes there. One, there was **blood smeared on one of the machines** . Two, some of the **fluff from their jacket** got stuck in the dryer.”

“Just before eight twenty, Horror entered the cafeteria. Ink followed not long after. Horror **saw the unlocked kitchen door** , but wasn’t able to check in on it until everyone, including the killer, had shown up to the cafeteria. The killer, Horror, and I went to check the kitchen, and that’s when we found the host body. Ink came in not long after, and the discovery announcement went off **.** ”

“The killer’s plan had seemingly gone off without a hitch. However, they made a few more mistakes down the line. One, they **visited the rooms during the investigation** , and I bumped into them as they were coming back. Two, they commented on a **sore throat** – evidence of the host-hopping scuffle that had occurred just a little while earlier.”

“And all of this evidence points to you as the killer, Fell,” Cosmo finished. “Or should I say Fresh?”

Fresh grit their teeth. “This is ridiculous.”

“You know what’s even more ridiculous?” Cross said. “The fact that you haven’t said a single ‘fuck’ since this trial started. ‘Cause Fell would totally do that.”

Fresh blinked. “What? I can say fuck,” they said, bewildered. “Fuck!”

“Are you just saying that to make yourself look like Fell, though?” Nightmare said. “If you’re a parasite, it would make sense to try to fly under the radar and assimilate to your new host. Perhaps you were so engrossed in your disarming anti-swearing campaign that you couldn’t drop it right away when you made the switch.”

“I’m telling you, that’s ridiculous!” Fresh shouted. “You’re going to get everyone killed!”

“Then I guess we’ll die,” Cosmo said. “Blue, we’re ready for the vote.”

Blue grinned. “Great! Any objections besides our screaming friend over there?” Fresh protested, but nobody else did. They quieted down when the tablets lit up with the voting screen, and soon, everyone had cast their votes. Blue clapped his hands together excitedly. “Lovely lovely! And the winner is…” 

_Please, please be right._

“…everyone but Fresh! You guys got it right!”

Fresh pressed their lips into a tight line. “…Fuck,” they muttered, this time for real. Cosmo tried to meet their gaze, but Fresh wasn’t giving anyone the satisfaction, and instead chose to stare down at their podium. No one could bring themselves to say anything for a good while. 

Blue held his smile. “...So, if no one has any commentary, then we can proceed with the-”

“Why did you do it?” Classic said, gaze stone cold. “Why did you kill her?”

Fresh didn’t answer for a moment. They slowly started to laugh. “Why do I do anything?” They looked up, expression blank save for the automatic response of laughter. “ _Survival._ This isn’t a game where you have time to preserve any so-called moral integrity. It’s a question of whether I value your lives or mine.” Their grip on the podium tightened. “I knew the answer to that question from the moment the rules of this dimension were laid out in front of us, and my only regret is that I was outsmarted.” Fresh glanced from left to right. The laughter was gone, and nothing remained. 

“But now you’re going to die,” Reaper said. “And Fell’s death… she’ll have died for nothing.”

“I don’t care,” Fresh replied simply. “I wanted to live. I _still_ want to live.”

Cosmo’s throat tightened. They didn’t care? How could they not _care?_

“Well, too bad,” Blue said, “because right now, it’s time for the extra-special punishment!”

“Hey, I have an important question,” Hearts said. “About the… punishment.”

“Yeah?” Blue said, grinning.

“What… what happens to Fell?” Hearts asked. “She got possessed, so… is there a chance she’s still…?”

Blue tilted his head to the side. “Oh, no! Not a chance. She was rendered brain dead as soon as Fresh possessed her. That’s what made the murder a murder!”

Hearts nodded. “Ah… I see. So… Fresh will be punished while in her body?”

“Eh, that’s what’s easiest. Now, let’s get this show on the road!” Blue stood up from the chair he’d been in the whole trial and clapped his hands.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. A chain descended from the ceiling, and a metal collar wrapped itself around Fresh’s neck. It pulled up and they were dragged kicking and screaming, up and out of the courtroom. Echoes of their screams – screams in Fell’s voice – resonated around the room, and everyone was stunned into silence.

_A glass tank rose from the floor. It was large enough so that when Fresh was dropped inside, there was no hope of climbing out the way they came. The chain retracted, and they furiously pounded on the glass with their fists to no avail. “I don’t want to die!” they screamed._

_Neither did Fell._

_Something small dropped on their head from the top, and they flinched, looking up to find out what it was. They pulled it off their head, examining it closely only to reel back in disgust and drop it on the floor of the tank. The tiny leech wriggled around before starting to crawl towards Fresh. For good measure, Fresh crushed it under their shoe._

_The death of the one was only the beginning. More leeches fell from above, and Fresh shrieked as they latched onto bare patches of their skin. They clawed frantically at the tiny parasites, tugging and tugging, succeeding in freeing themselves from some but not others. Blood ran down their skin._

_The leeches grew in size. They became almost comically large, some as thick as Fresh’s – or Fell’s – limbs. The rest of the group could only watch in horror as Fresh was brought to their knees, shaking and struggling to stay up. Blood was draining from their body at an alarming rate, but the bugs didn’t stop. Fresh fell to the floor of the glass tank, letting the leeches swarm over their body._

_Execution: Complete._

__

Cosmo couldn’t bring themselves to tear away their gaze. Their stomach threatened to empty its contents as they watched the leeches crawl around the tank, and eventually, a hand on their arm made them turn. It was Horror. A stone cold expression sat on her face, and it did not help their nausea one bit.

“We’re allowed to leave the trial room now,” she said. “Let’s go. You don’t want to keep watching that.” She gently tugged on Cosmo’s arm.

“But – but Fell –” Cosmo began, glancing over at the tank once more. The leeches made their stomach turn again.

“That wasn’t Fell anymore,” Horror said, bringing Cosmo’s gaze back towards her. “I’m sorry. She was already dead. And Fresh… well, it was too late for them. They chose their fate.”

Cosmo swallowed past a lump in their throat. “But they didn’t deserve to - not like that.”

“I know. That’s why we need to get out. Now.”

Letting Horror grip their hand tight, they were dragged along to the elevator. Several people were already waiting. Horror led them into the corner of the elevator, making sure not to let go of their hand. Cosmo stared at the floor, not even registering the fact that the doors were shutting until the elevator lurched upwards. Cosmo doubled over and nearly vomited on the floor.

“Hey. You can hold it in. I promise,” Horror muttered. “You’ll be all right. You’re alive. You solved the trial. You saved everyone’s lives, Cosmo.”

“But – Fell and Fresh,” they said. “I couldn’t – I couldn’t prevent them from-”

“No one could. And that’s not your fault,” Horror said. “You did what you could.”

The elevator arrived topside. What time was it? Afternoon? It seemed like it. That meant they must have spent at least a few hours in the courtroom. Cosmo filed out of the elevator with Horror leading them forward, and they stopped in the middle of the common room. Their head swam. Looking left and right, they saw people quickly separating off into groups. Classic and Dance were the first to leave, whispering to each other without addressing those around them. Next was Hearts, alone, then Nightmare with Dream trailing close behind. Geno barely managed to slip out after them before the door closed on her.

“I’m going to go to the cafeteria,” Horror said, mostly to Cosmo but loud enough for those who remained to hear. “Breakfast was… interrupted, so I bet you’re hungry. Do you think you can eat some sandwiches? Apple slices? Something?” she asked.

“I...” Cosmo started, then shook their head. The idea of food made them nauseous. Maybe they should head back to their room. Nap a little bit. “No. I’m going to go back to my room for now and get some rest. I’ll eat later.” They were so tired…

* * *

Cosmo’s bedroom door appeared in front of them before they knew they were even walking towards it. They let out a breath they hadn’t known they were holding and rested their forehead against the door. Their eyes drifted shut for a moment. _It’s over,_ they thought to themselves. _It’s over now. It’s time to rest._ They reached into their pocket for their key.

_Their key._

Cosmo’s stomach filled with dread. They’d been looking for it prior to the trial. They were looking for it until they ran into Fell – Fresh. That was Fresh. They never got to go find it, but now that they were back, they could just go into their room and grab it. Right? That’s where they thought they left it, but thinking back on it, when was the last time they knew for sure that they had their key? Hours ago? More?

The door to their room swung open easily as they turned the knob. Cosmo closed it behind them as they walked in, then headed straight for the table where they were sure they’d left it. However, instead of their key, there was a slip of paper on the table. Cosmo’s heart beat faster as they approached. Their key was gone, and now there was a note. Had someone taken it? Were they about to be blackmailed? Threatened? They picked up the slip of paper and held it close, feeling their heart nearly stop as they read the four words written on it in all capitals.

_YOU DON’T BELONG HERE._


	5. Chapter 2 - Daily Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another 10k chapter yaaaaaay
> 
> WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: There is another illustration that accompanies the text at the end of the chapter. It has the potential to be very triggering for some readers, but contains MAJOR spoilers. If you're worried the warning(s) might apply to you, please visit [this link](https://pastebin.com/C5W1NhRp) to view the warning(s).
> 
> Also warning for, uh... mentions of terrorism, I guess? It's not too serious.
> 
> Huge thanks to [Allu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fellusion) once again for proofreading <3

“How are the pancakes?” Horror asked.

Cosmo nodded vigorously, shoveling more food into their mouth. “Delicious,” they said through a mouthful of pancake. They swallowed and then said, “I don’t think I’ve actually had your pancakes before. They’re really good.”

“Huh. This is the third time I’ve made them,” Horror said, scratching the back of her head. “Though I guess you weren’t hungry the other times.”

Cosmo froze for a moment, gripping their fork tighter before going back to vigorously eating pancakes. They didn’t want to think about yesterday morning – or yesterday in general. They just wanted to focus on getting at least something into their painfully empty stomach. True to Horror’s words, they weren’t hungry the last time she’d made pancakes, or even the last time she’d cooked at all. Even now, it was about ten o’clock in the morning, and breakfast had been a while ago. Cosmo had just asked Horror to let them in the kitchen so they could grab something to eat, but she’d insisted on going through the trouble of making an entirely new batch of pancakes. “I owe you this, at least,” she’d said with no further elaboration, and began to cook.

It wasn’t like Cosmo was complaining, though. They needed to eat. Soon enough, their plate was empty, and they stood up to take it to the kitchen. Horror trotted after them.

“So, um…” Horror started as Cosmo cleaned off their plate in the sink, “There’s a new floor to the building - the gates at the top of the stairs in the foyer are gone. Blue came by and told everyone, so they’ve already explored it, but since you were, uh…” Horror trailed off. Cosmo gripped the dish soap tighter. “Anyways, do you want to check it out with me? I haven’t been up there either.”

Cosmo turned the tap off and dried the plate before setting it on the counter. “You’re… okay with leaving the kitchen?” they asked.

“I was thinking about asking Blue to lock it while we were gone,” Horror confessed. She looked over her shoulder towards the security camera in the upper corner of the room, then cupped her hands around her mouth. “Blue?”

“No, Horror-” Cosmo started, but it was too late. They watched with dread as Blue warped into existence right by the kitchen door. He smiled and leaned against the wall.

“Oh _hi_ there, Cosmo!” he chirped. “Aww, you don’t look too happy to see me. Funny, I recall you begging for me to talk to you yesterday.”

“Cosmo was locked in their room all day after the trial yesterday, so nice try,” Horror said.

“Darling, don’t forget that I can go anywhere I please without the need for keys, knocks, or lock picks,” Blue said, rolling his eyes. “But Cosmo, why so quiet? Yesterday you just wouldn’t shut _up!_ ”

“Don’t listen to him, Cosmo,” Horror muttered. “He’s just trying to aggravate you.”

“Aggravate? Well, maybe I was doing a bit of that yesterday, but come on now, Cosmo, I was just playing around!”

_“Stop playing around!” Cosmo shouted, holding up the note in the air. “Tell me who put this here! And – and who took my key!”_

_Blue laughed. “Sorry, I can’t tell you that! I did warn you to keep a close watch on your key, though. It’s not my fault if you didn’t read my note!”_

_“What does this even mean? ‘You don’t belong here’?” Cosmo turned the note around to show Blue the text. “Does – does someone want to kill me?!”_

_Blue rolled his eyes. “That’s another question I can’t answer. Come on, if it were part of a murder attempt, do you really think I’d spoil it?”_

_Cosmo grit their teeth. “Are they targeting me because I’m different from everyone else? Because I’m – what do they call it?”_

_“Off-grid?”_

_“Off-grid,” Cosmo snapped. Their breathing became labored and they gripped the note tighter. “I – what’s going to happen without my key? Anyone could come in here and murder me in the middle of the night!”_

_Blue clicked his tongue. “Now now, you can still lock your room from the inside to keep people out.”_

_“Yeah,” Cosmo said. “To keep out everyone but the person who has my key.”_

_“Wow, how long did it take you to figure that one out?” Blue said, hands on his hips. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do. Places to be. If you don’t have an actual concern about this whole killing game, then-”_

_“These are all actual concerns!” Cosmo replied indignantly. “Just answer me!”_

_Blue laughed. “No.”_

“I don’t want to explore today,” Cosmo said, setting the drying towel next to their plate before storming out of the kitchen.

“Cosmo, wait!” Horror called, but they were already gone. Cosmo blindly stumbled out of the cafeteria and into one of the hallway doors, pausing as they gripped the doorknob. They leaned their head against the door as they caught their breath, then turned the knob, stepped inside, and closed it behind them. Their back hit the door as soon as that happened, and they slumped to the floor.

“And… you’re here because…?”

The dull hum of one of the washing machines was the only thing that permeated the silence after that. Cosmo looked up, and Nightmare looked back down at them. “Uh…”

“You’re not here for laundry,” Nightmare said. Her expression was cold, and her upper lip curled slightly in annoyance. “Are you – hiding from someone?”

Cosmo’s heart skipped a beat. A bolt of cold fear washed over them in a giant wave that seemed like it came from Nightmare herself. “N-no,” they lied, poorly.

“Mm, I see,” Nightmare said, clicking the door of one of the dryers shut. “Well, don’t let me stop you from…” she paused, pressing her lips together, then smiled, “doing your laundry. May I leave the room?”

Cosmo was frozen for a moment before they scrambled to their feet, moving away from the door. Nightmare barely acknowledged them on her way out of the room. As she passed, another wave of cold rushed over Cosmo, causing them to freeze in place for a few seconds as fear gripped their heart. Cosmo stayed in place, even as the door swung shut and they were left alone. That cold feeling certainly didn’t seem natural. If Cosmo didn’t know better, they would assume it was magic.

“Cosmo!” Horror blurted as she threw open the door to the laundry room. “There you are. I got Blue to lock the kitchen, but – but we don’t have to check out the second floor if you really don’t want to.” Horror paused and wrung her hands together. Cosmo took a glance at her uncharacteristically open stance – she was a little hunched, but out of worry, not fear.

“I…” Cosmo blinked, momentarily forgetting about Nightmare. “I’m fine, Horror. You, on the other hand, uh. Look really worried. You don’t have to be, you know?”

Horror looked a little taken aback. Darkness with a tint of red crept up her neck and onto her cheeks. “I’m. I want you to be okay. Especially after yesterday.”

Cosmo watched Horror shuffle from foot to foot. She looked like she genuinely cared, yes, but there was something else. Usually, she was so paranoid. Unless she felt obligated to be this kind, somehow…? A flash of guilt passed Horror’s gaze for a moment and Cosmo frowned.

‘ _Especially after yesterday.’_

“Ah, Horror, you know you… don’t owe me anything, right?” Cosmo asked after a moment. “The trial, it-”

“I know that,” Horror interrupted. “I also know you don’t want to talk about the trial.”

Cosmo pursed their lips. _Not so much the trial, but what happened after…_ “It’s okay. Do you want to explore the second floor now?”

“Are you sure?”

Cosmo nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

The second floor of the building seemed much like the first, with the twin stairways leading into a foyer with an archway to the left and an archway to the right. The staircases continued to spiral upward, and Cosmo almost kept climbing, but a hand on their arm and a sentence from Horror informed them that the stairs were blocked off, and they couldn’t climb further.

Horror and Cosmo veered to the left, where a set of double doors awaited them at the end of a short hall. Pushing them open revealed a large gymnasium – no, not a gymnasium. More like…

“Oh wow,” Horror said. Despite how quiet she’d said it, her voice carried across the room, bouncing across the walls and ceiling. “A ballroom? What would we use this for?”

“I don’t know. Dancing?” Cosmo replied, looking left and right. On the other side of the room stood Ink, Reaper, and Geno, all huddled around something on the floor. Reaper knelt with her cloak spread around her, Geno was popping a squat and fiddling with whatever object they all were circling, and Ink was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. He was the first to notice Horror and Cosmo, and then he stuck his hand up in the air and waved.

“Cosmo! Horror! Come here!” he called out. A grin crossed his face and he kept bouncing on his feet. Reaper tossed a look over her shoulder to see who was there while Geno was completely absorbed in her tinkering. Cosmo and Horror quickly joined them.

“Is that a stereo?” Horror asked, peering over Ink’s head to get a good look at it.

“More like a boom box,” Geno answered. “It’s certainly loud enough to carry across the room. I’m surprised you didn’t hear the racket earlier.”

“What happened?” Cosmo said.

“It started screaming a bunch of high-pitched feedback,” Reaper answered. “But Geno thinks that means it might have radio capabilities.”

“Radio?” Horror said. She stepped closer and squatted down to examine the boom box. “What kind of radio?”

“Well, not the kind where we can send any signal outward,” Geno said. “But the antenna attached to the top of it-” she pulls upwards on a thin, extendable metal rod with a nub on top, “-looks like it can receive a signal.”

“So do we just get music stations here or something?” Cosmo asked, bewildered.

Geno shook her head. “No. In fact, it’s not picking up on anything at all. All we get is static or loud feedback.” She finally stood up and met Cosmo’s gaze. “It looks to be useless.”

Ink frowned down at the boom box, then reached out and flicked the antenna with a finger. It wobbled back and forth. “Is it even on?”

“No,” Geno said, “I turned it off after it started making feedback noises.”

“Well, maybe now that you’ve fiddled with it a bunch it’ll play something,” Ink said, reaching down for the ‘on’ switch.

“Ink, don’t-”

The switch was flipped and static filled the room. However, as Geno reached down to swat Ink’s hand away and turn it off again, Cosmo noticed something.

“Geno, wait.”

Geno stopped, then let Cosmo crouch down by the box and fiddle with the radio dial. As they turned it, a voice became clearer behind the static – a singing voice. The static melted away and a pop song started to play through the speakers of the boom box.

“Hey hey! Music!” Ink cheered.

Geno crouched down back by the boom box, examining the dial. “It looks like this is the only station we’re getting. Don’t you think that’s weird? What if-” Geno crossed her arms, huffing, “-what if it’s dangerous somehow?”

“A radio station? Dangerous?” Reaper said, scoffing. “Please. It’s a radio station, playing-” she paused, listening to the music, “Taylor Swift of all things.”

Geno pulled her sweater tighter around herself. “I guess, but I’m still not convinced it’s _just_ here for us to play music.”

Reaper shrugged. “I mean… it’s a ballroom. People usually dance in these places. And they don’t usually dance without music.”

“Yo, is that Taylor Swift?” came an echoey call from across the room, near the doors. Dance and Classic, side by side, had just walked in, and Dance was grinning ear to ear. “If that’s her CD, I know a sick routine to Shake It Off!”

“No, it’s a station, actually,” Horror said as the two walked closer. “The only station we can get, according to Geno.”

“Aw, damn,” Dance said. “Wait. A station? You mean we get radio here?”

“Just one station,” Geno reaffirmed. “And I don’t know how or why.”

“Well, it’s a pocket dimension. It would make sense that we shouldn’t get any stations. I’m inclined to be worried like Geno,” Cosmo muttered. “Unless we’re really meant to just take it at face value. I mean… it could just be music. It _is_ a ballroom.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Reaper said, standing up and smoothing out her cloak. “We should just enjoy it. Oh – we could have a party!”

“A party? In the middle of a deathmatch?” Geno muttered. “That… would be in poor taste.”

Reaper faltered. “I… I mean. I guess it would, but I just thought it might be nice to have a little bit of fun.”

“A party sounds great!” Ink chipped in. “Forget about murder, I wanna spike the punch bowl and do a samba!”

“Spiked punch bowl, no. Samba, yes,” Dance quickly amended. “For once, I agree. That sounds really fun, actually,” he said with a giddy giggle, pushing his hands into his pockets.

“If you’re talking about actual samba, which you might be,” Classic piped up, glancing to Dance, “then I know how. People in my hometown loved to samba during celebrations. I’m… a bit rusty, though.”

Dance’s eyes lit up. “Really? You can samba?” he exclaimed.

Classic held up his hands. “Uhh, vaguely. I haven’t done it in a _long_ time. Plus, is Taylor Swift really the best samba music?” He gestured to the boom box.

Dance shrugged. “It won’t play that for eternity, I don’t think. Something better is sure to play whenever we have the party.”

“Hold on, we haven’t even cemented if there’s going to _be_ a party,” Geno said.

“Oh, there is now,” Dance assured. “I’m going to throw it, and I expect you all-” he pointed to everyone in the room, sweeping his finger across the air, “-to be there. And everyone else.”

“You’re going to have a party in the middle of a death game,” Geno deadpanned.

Dance paused, pursing his lips, then said, “Well, if not me, who will? Things are hostile enough, I know. But maybe some dancing and a little fun could delay a murder another day.” He glanced to Classic. “And that’s pretty worth it, I think.”

Classic offered a smile. “It’ll definitely ease some of that tension.” He glanced to Dance. “So, samba…?”

Dance grinned. “You wanna start practicing now?”

Classic shrugged. “Sure. If us practicing in the ballroom won’t bother anyone else.”

“Wait, teach me how to samba with you,” Reaper said. “I mean, I suggested the idea of a party, so it’d make sense to contribute.”

“Hold up,” Dance said, holding out a hand, then put that same hand to his chin. “Depends. Can you move those hips?”

Reaper glanced down at herself. “Honey, I’ve been moving these hips for years.” She put her hand on her right side as she put her weight on the same leg. “I’ve gotcha.”

“Perfect. Women’s samba – well, all samba, really, but especially women’s samba – it’s all about the hips. It uses the whole body, but the hip and leg movement is key, and…” Dance trailed off, guiding both Reaper and Classic to the center of the ballroom.

“Well, a party’s going to need food. I promise I won’t let there be a punch bowl for Ink to spike,” Horror reassured. “Let me go talk to Dance about it.” She left Cosmo with Ink and Geno at the boom box.

Geno glanced warily at the four in the center of the ballroom, then shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t know why they’re so excited. A party’s not going to change anything.”

Cosmo looked over at Geno, a bit awkwardly. “I mean, it’s a nice thought. And it might get some people to be... I don’t know. Less scared of dying.”

“And with one murder and execution carried out, people are _definitely_ more terrified than before!” Ink said, clapping his hands together. “So, you know. Cosmo’s right.” Ink’s tone dropped to more of a flat deadpan as he delivered the last part of his statement. He stared at Geno, unblinking, for longer than one normally would have.

“Um,” Geno muttered, a bit affronted, “sorry for being _cautious._ And worried.”

Emotion flooded Ink’s face again and he straightened his posture. “Oh, Cosmo!” he exclaimed, turning to face them and completely ignoring Geno, “have you seen the garden?”

“Garden?” Cosmo repeated.

“Garden, greenhouse, whatever, it’s pretty and it has plants!” Ink said. He reached out and grabbed Cosmo’s hand. “It’s the other room on this floor. Let’s go!”

Cosmo gave a confused glance to Ink and then turned their gaze to Geno, who was already engrossed in the boom box again and therefore couldn’t help them. They were left to their fate of being dragged along by Ink.

The garden was less of a greenhouse like Ink had suggested and more of an _actual garden,_ to Cosmo’s surprise. As soon as they stepped in the room, the ground turned soft under their shoes, and they looked down to find that they had stepped onto a patch of grass. The garden was about as large as the ballroom, with cobblestone pathways amidst the groupings of brightly colored flowers. A gigantic willow tree sat in the middle of the room.

Several people were gathered around the tree. Dream was standing by the base, shouting up into the branches of the tree, where Dust had perched herself. Cosmo had to squint to see her at first, since she was hidden by the drooping leaves. Killer sat by the roots, hands behind his head as he leaned back on the trunk. Cross was sat with legs crossed beside him. A few feet away from the tree was a park bench, and Nightmare was currently sat on its right half.

“Dust, please, get – get down from there! Those branches are clearly fragile!” Dream called out.

“Not as fragile as your composure,” Dust called back down. “Worry-wort.”

“Seriously, Dreamboat, she’s light as a feather,” Killer commented, never even opening his eyes to look at where Dust was. “I don’t even think she breaks a hundred pounds.”

“S’cuse you, I’m one-ten of pure muscle. I could snap these twigs if I wanted,” Dust called back down at him.

“Don’t!” Dream cried out, terrified for the tree.

Dust grinned, bouncing up and down on the willow branch, which creaked dangerously. “Gonna amputate your precious tree, Dream.”

“She knows not to break it, she’s not stupid,” Nightmare huffed. “She’s just childish.”

“Says you, the queen of having a stick up her ass,” Dust sneered.

“ _Dust,_ ” Nightmare said dangerously, glancing up past the leaves with a single cyan eye. “Behave.”

Dust sighed in annoyance. “Yes ma’am,” she mumbled, nose scrunched up. “God, you’re still a terrifying bitch even when we’re not on duty.”

Nightmare moved her gaze away from Dust and over to Cosmo and Ink, who had just made it to the clearing with the willow tree. “Ah, Cosmo. Not hiding in laundry rooms anymore, I see?”

Cosmo felt their cheeks heat up a bit. They ignored Nightmare’s jab. “We were just in the ballroom,” they said. “Dance is going to throw a party of some sort. Classic and Reaper are going to dance with him, Horror’s going to make food, and… I dunno what else. Or when it’s going to happen.” Cosmo shrugged. “But that’s a thing.”

Cross snorted. “A party? In the middle of… _this?”_

“No no, I’m intrigued,” Killer said. “What kind of dancing?”

“Samba!” Ink said, throwing his hands into the air and letting go of Cosmo’s wrist.

Dream’s eyes lit up. He turned to Nightmare. “S- Nightmare, did you hear that?”

“You’re not getting me to samba,” Nightmare glowered.

Dream cast his best puppy-dog face towards her. “You should have some fun, though!” He glances to the side. “Cross?”

“ _Me?_ ” she replied incredulously. “Do you want me to convince _her_ to samba or do it myself? Because-”

“Both! We should all samba!” Dream blurted, grin spreading across his face.

Cross laughed nervously. _“No._ ”

Dream’s face fell and he pouted. Dust snickered from up in the tree.

“Wow, Dream, guess you’ll just have to go samba with the others,” Dust said, letting her arm fall off a branch and dangle beneath her, fingertips idly pointing to the ground. “Buh-bye.”

Without missing a beat, Dream’s arm darted upwards, snatching Dust’s wrist that now sat low enough for him to grab. Dust’s expression morphed to one of surprise – not registering that with a height of over six feet, Dream could easily reach into the tree. “Off the tree, dear,” he snarked.

“Yank me out of here yourself, coward,” Dust snapped, and immediately regretted her words. Effortlessly, Dream pulled on Dust’s wrist and she tumbled out of the tree and into Dream’s arms, shrieking as she fell.

“Aww, is baby upset?” Dream cooed as he cradled Dust bridal-style. Killer, Cross, and Ink all burst into uproarious laughter as Dust hissed and tried to claw her way out of Dream’s arms.

“Let me go, asshole!” Dust said.

“I thought you stated you were ‘one-ten of pure muscle’ and could ‘snap those twigs’ if you wanted,” Nightmare commented nonchalantly. “Escape on your own.”

“I can snap twigs, not fight off a beefcake!” Dust shrieked. “Let me go!”

Sighing, Dream finally set Dust back down on the ground. Dust huffed, brushed herself off, and for good measure, socked Dream in the arm none too gently before scampering over to where Killer and Cross were sat. Dream, affronted, rubbed the spot on his arm where Dust had hit him.

“Dream,” Nightmare called, and Cosmo turned their head to watch Nightmare lift a finger and curl it in a ‘come here’ motion directed at Dream. Dream turned and approached her, situating himself on the bench next to her as she leaned in and muttered something in his ear. All too quickly, however, Cosmo was dragged away by Ink to sit next to Killer, Cross, and Dust.

“…but he’d never accept,” Cross insisted. “I still don’t believe she’d ask him like that. Not _here._ ”

“Sorry, what?” Cosmo asked, suddenly tuning into the conversation.

Killer gave a large sigh. “So basically, Nightmare wants Dream to be her second-in-command, but of course he’s going to say no because he’s a holier-than-thou vigilante,” he explained.

“Second-in-command?” Cosmo asked, cocking their head to the side. “Of what?”

“It’s complicated,” Cross said.

“Not _that_ complicated,” Dust huffed. “Dream only hates us because Nightmare used to be like, a terrorist.”

“A _terrorist?”_ Cosmo said, glancing over to Nightmare with fearful eyes.

“It’s what it says on the tin, honestly,” Killer said. “Me, Dust, Cross, Horror, and Nightmare were all like, a terrorist squad. Wrecking up universes, causing chaos.”

“You make it sound so much worse than it was!” Cross exclaimed.

“We murdered people, Cross.”

Cosmo suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Ink gave them a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “So… she wants him to be. Uh. Second-in-command of your terrorist group?” they squeaked.

“God, no. We’re not like that anymore, I swear,” Killer says, “which sounds _really_ fuckin’ bad, I know. But no, she wants him to be second-in-command because she’s the force captain of the MVC. Law enforcement.”

Cosmo’s worry didn’t depart, but instead, confusion rooted itself in their brain. “How did you go from… _terrorism,_ ” they said, still weirded out by dropping such a loaded word so casually, “to law enforcement?”

“Again, complicated,” Cross said. “You don’t know anything about Nightmare, do you?”

Cosmo glanced back to the bench, where Dream was muttering something to Nightmare with furrowed brows. “…No,” they said. “Who even… who _is_ she?”

“No one really knows, actually,” Dust said. “The only thing we’ve managed to pry from her is that she once was some sort of spirit guardian. She has a higher concentration of magic than anyone I’ve ever met. Honestly, I’m surprised these things-” Dust held up the black bangle on her wrist, “-were able to contain her. She’s been pissy about that since the start. Not that she’s wanted to talk about it much.”

“She never wants to talk about her magic or where she got it from,” Killer said. “I mean, if I were her, I wouldn’t want to talk about the hentai tentacles either.”

Cosmo choked. “Sorry, the _what?”_

“She’s like an octopus,” Dust snickered. “Or, maybe not an octopus. The most I’ve seen her with is four. But there’s this ring of light she summons on her back and these black, goopy tentacles come out of it. Like extra limbs.”

“I remember asking her once what they were made out of,” Killer said, “And all I got was-” he cleared his throat, then in a gravelly, foreboding imitation of Nightmare, he said, “ _negative energy in its most dangerous, purest form.”_ Killer laughed. “She also says she ‘feeds off of negative energy’ but at this point, I’m not sure if that’s real or if it was her way of saying she’d eat me alive if I was weak.”

“No, that’s real,” Cross said. “I think. It’s the reason she accepted the peace treaty, remember?”

“That’s right,” Dust mused. “As force captain, she’d get to feed off of the negative energy from criminals.”

“Is that what was in the treaty?” Killer muttered. “Just the negative energy?”

Dust nodded. “I think so.”

“Ah.”

There was silence for a few moments - confused silence on Cosmo’s part. They looked between Dust and Killer, trying to wordlessly coerce some sort of explanation from them, but neither of them would meet their gaze. Cosmo glanced over to Cross, who made eye contact, but quickly averted her gaze.

“So – yeah, there was a treaty,” Cross hastily said. “Instead of causing suffering everywhere to feed from, Nightmare would become head of the militia – a line of work that would provide her with a similar amount of energy sources.”

“I thought you guys said you were law enforcement.”

“Law enforcement, militia, all-in-one,” Killer explained. “Dream thinks the entire organization is corrupt, so that’s why he won’t say yes. Nightmare’s asked him before.”

“Well, she doesn’t have magic here, remember?” Cross said. “So she can be genuine with him without worrying about her aura.”

“Aura?” Cosmo asked. “I know you already explained her magic, but I don’t think we covered that one.”

“Ah, yeah,” Dust said, “Her aura. It’s not her most powerful piece of magic, which is probably why we didn’t mention it. Come to think of it though, it’s been weird being around her without it. Right Killer?”

“Oh, definitely. She seems like a teddy bear in comparison,” Killer replied. He glanced over to Cosmo. “Nightmare normally exudes this aura of magical energy. Anyone who’s near her will be affected by it. It just makes you feel…”

“Scared,” Cross supplied, “is a good way to put it. It’s cold. Sorrowful. Terrifying. Not all at once, but it depends on what kind of emotion she wants to inflict. Passively, it’s just intimidating. Nothing specific.”

Cosmo pursed their lips, then glanced back to the bench. _Cold._ Almost like… what they’d felt in the laundry room as Nightmare had walked past. _No, that’s not right,_ Cosmo thought. Nightmare’s magic was restricted just like the rest of theirs. As Cosmo stared, the conversation between Nightmare and Dream seemed to grow louder, and they couldn’t help but tune in.

“…as always, aren’t you?”

“Si-”

_“Don’t.”_

“Nightmare, then,” Dream said through gritted teeth. “I only want what’s _best_ for everyone, and I don’t think that joining your _army_ will-”

“I told you, it’s just law enforcement!”

“Is that what you told the inhabitants of-”

“Oh, not this again,” Nightmare said, standing up from the bench. “I’m done. You clearly haven’t grown up any more since I last asked.”

“You’re calling me immature?” Dream asked, affronted. By now, Killer, Dust, Cross, and Ink had quieted their conversation as all and were paying attention to Nightmare and Dream. Neither of them noticed the attention they were drawing to themselves. “Funny, considering you’re the one they had to sign a treaty with to get you to stop _murdering._ ”

“Oh, don’t you dare take the moral high ground. You’re just as hypocritical as I am, and we both know it. I don’t know why I keep trying to persuade you to join the coalition.”

“The coalition can rot for all I care,” Dream said indignantly.

“You want to tell them that?” Nightmare asked, sweeping her arm outwards as she gestured to Killer, Dust, and Cross. “Tell them you want to destroy the coalition and by extension, see them return to where they were before – without a home, without _anything._ ”

Dream paused. He glanced over at the group sitting by the tree, now suddenly aware of his audience. “That’s not – Nightmare, you know that I-”

“Go on, tell us, Dream,” Cross piped up, a rough edge to her tone. “Tell us what we’re going to do after the coalition rots like you want.”

Dream pursed his lips, then stood from the bench. “The multiversal coalition,” he said, “is corrupt beyond repair. That’s all I’m going to say on the matter.” He turned to Nightmare. “I’d prefer if we didn’t discuss this again.” Without waiting for a response, he briskly moved past Nightmare and disappeared beyond the greenery of the garden.

More silence filled the room. After a few moments, Ink broke it. “Wow. Awkward.”

“And you.” Nightmare turned to face Ink. “Leave. Take Cosmo with you,” she said. “I want a private word with my squadron.”

“The whole squadron?” Ink said. “Horror’s not here, you know.”

“Then _find_ her and send her to me,” Nightmare snapped.

Ink hopped to his feet, rocking back on his heels before giving a casual salute. “Yes ma’am,” he said. “You want me to make you tea, too?”

_“Get out.”_

Cosmo, slightly scared of Nightmare’s wrath, quickly stood up on their own and dragged Ink out of the garden with them. Once they were out of the room and in the second-floor foyer, Ink shook himself free of Cosmo’s grip on their wrist.

“Geez, watch the death grip!” he whined, rubbing his wrist.

“Look, Ink, I don’t think it’s a good idea to make her angry,” Cosmo said. “She’s powerful.”

“What? She may be like, a foot taller than me, but I know martial arts!” Ink gave a punch into the air to demonstrate. “Though, to be fair, I don’t know if she has any formal hand-to-hand combat training, either. Man, if she did, then she _could_ probably beat me up. Oh man, Cosmo, you’re right. She _is_ pretty scary,” Ink said, flat-toning the entire sentence.

Cosmo blinked. “I’m being serious, Ink.”

Ink blinked right back. “And… I was too? Did I not sound serious?” Ink pursed his lips, then fumbled for one of the vials on his sash. “Man, I wish I could actually take this. Then that might not happen.”

“Ink, listen to me,” Cosmo said. “Something’s… not right with Nightmare.” They pursed their lips, recalling the cold feeling in the laundry room. “I think… somehow, she might still have magic.”

Ink put a finger to his chin. “If this bracelet won’t let me get the magic from drinking my paint _–_ which is an extremely natural magical process almost on the level of _breathing –_ then Nightmare definitely doesn’t have any magic. Are you sure you’re not hallucinating? Yesterday messed you up real bad.”

Cosmo’s brow twinged in irritation. “No, I’m not hallucinating,” they said. “Look, you heard what they said about Nightmare’s aura. It’s cold and frightening, right?”

Ink nodded. “But what does that have to do with anything?”

“I’m fairly sure I felt it earlier. Coming from her. The bracelet would block that, right?” Cosmo said.

Ink paused. “Yeah, it would. Are you sure you didn’t mistake it for something else?” he asked.

“It matches the description Cross gave,” Cosmo said. “Cold and frightening. We were alone in the laundry room together and she walked by me and I just…” Cosmo shook their head. “I froze. I was terrified for a good moment as she walked by.”

“That’s not right,” Ink muttered. “I thought…” he trailed off. His brows furrowed as he stood there, deep in thought. After a moment, he shook his head, then grabbed Cosmo’s arm of his own accord this time. “Forget about _that,_ we need to go send Horror over to her! Otherwise she might _actually_ do something.” Ink giggled softly, pulling along a still-worried Cosmo into the ballroom.

Horror wasn’t anywhere to be found. The only ones left in the ballroom were Dance, Classic, and Reaper, dancing to a fast-paced rock song that the boom box’s single radio station was playing. Cosmo stood near the entrance for a moment, transfixed by the way the three of them were moving, but was quickly dragged along by Ink.

“Hey!” Ink shouted over the music. “Where’s Horror?”

Classic was the only one of the three who paused his dancing, jogging over to the boom box to quickly turn down the volume (which was met by protests from Reaper and Dance). “Sorry, what did you say?” Classic said.

“We’re looking for Horror. Do you know where she went?” Cosmo asked.

Classic shrugged. “She was talking with Dance earlier while I was teaching Reaper the basics of samba, but then she left. Dunno where she went. Dance?” He glanced over to Dance.

“She’s probably in the kitchen,” Dance supplied. “She’s making food for the party. Which-” Dance pointed straight at Cosmo, “-is going to be tonight. Eight o’clock. Be there or I kick down your bedroom door and bring you here myself.”

“Tonight? Isn’t that a lot to get set up in one day?” Cosmo asked.

“It’s not going to be too huge,” Reaper said. “Some low lights, music, dancing, food. Nothing planned out aside from that. Dance is the only one performing anything, and he. Well. He’s good at what he does.”

“Damn straight,” Dance said. “Classic and I are just teaching Reaper to make sure we can teach everyone else – and to make sure that she knows enough so that she can teach everyone else, too.”

“Teach everyone how to samba?”

“It’s like ballroom dancing. There’s complicated things about it, sure, but a few basic steps and some improvisation and you got yourself a party dance.” Classic shrugged. “By the way, what are you looking for Horror for?”

“Nightmare wanted to talk to her,” Ink said. “So we probably shouldn’t keep her waiting. Come on, Cosmo!”

As Cosmo was dragged out of the room by Ink once again, Dance called to them, “Make sure everyone knows about the party!”

The doors to the ballroom swung shut.

Ink had taken it upon himself to go fetch Horror while Cosmo went to inform the last couple of people about the party later tonight. Dance, Reaper, and Classic already knew, and so did Geno, Ink, and Horror. Nightmare, Dream, Dust, Killer, and Cross already knew from their conversation in the garden earlier, which left only Error and Hearts to find.

_That should be easy enough._

Cosmo knocked softly on the door with Hearts’ name on it. After a moment, a call came from inside.

“Just a second!” There was a bit of shuffling from inside the room and then the door opened to reveal Hearts, a little frazzled like he’d just woken up. “Oh, Cosmo! Hi. Is there something you need?”

Cosmo nodded. “Dance wanted me to let you know that he’s throwing a party tonight,” they said. “There’s going to be some dancing and Horror’s making food for everyone. You should come.”

Hearts rubbed at his eyes. “Sorry… Dance is hosting the party, you said?” Hearts asked.

“Yeah. He decided he was going to after we got the boom box in the ballroom to play music.”

Hearts pursed his lips. “Possibly. What time?”

“Eight o’clock.”

“I should be fine by then,” Hearts said. “I’ve been really tired lately. I think my magic’s upset ‘cause of this.” Hearts lifted his arm with the bracelet on it. “It’s making me exhausted.”

“Well, if you’re up to it, it’ll be in the ballroom tonight.” Cosmo hesitated, taking in Hearts’ tired expression. “I hope you can make it. It would be super fun to have you there.”

Hearts gave a soft little smile. “Thanks, Cosmo. I’ll do my best to make it.”

The bedroom door closed, and then Cosmo glanced down to the end of the hall – Error’s room. They hadn’t spoken to the man since the trial, and though Cosmo hadn’t been paying much attention to his actions and whereabouts, it seemed like he’d decided on a similar course of action to them – shut himself in and pray no one bothered him. Cosmo sympathized with that, but he’d probably benefit from some party food at least.

Cosmo approached Error’s bedroom door and was about to knock when they realized that the door was already propped open slightly. Confused, they knocked gently on it. “Error?” No response. They gently pressed the door open and walked inside. On the bed laid Error, curled up under the comforter. Cosmo sighed. At least he was alright.

They reached out a hand to shake him awake before remembering that he didn’t like to be touched and recoiling it from his body. Instead, they cupped their hands around their mouth. “ _Error._ ”

Error jolted and flailed wildly. “Who-?!” he exclaimed, then managed to sit upright and turn around, “Oh. You.”

Cosmo gave a pained smile. “Yeah, me. Hi.”

“How – how the hell did you get in here?”

“Your door was open,” Cosmo said. “I did knock. And I called your name.”

Disgruntled, Error reached up to the fuzzy locs of hair he’d tied back and pulled out the hair tie, re-doing the ponytail as he spoke. “Whatever. What do you want?”

Cosmo clasped their hands together. “There’s going to be a party later tonight. At eight. In the ballroom.”

Error snapped the band of the hair tie as he finished tying it off, then sneered, “What makes you think I’d want to go to something like that?”

“Well, it wasn’t my idea to invite you,” Cosmo replied, a bit affronted, but calmed their tone and continued, “Dance is hosting it, and he told me to make sure everyone knew. And last time I checked, ‘everyone’ includes you.”

Error made a face. “If Dance is hosting, I’m not going.”

Cosmo blinked. “You don’t like Dance?”

Error scoffed. “Please. I hate everyone here equally. Dance doesn’t like _me._ ”

Cosmo tilted their head to the side. “I didn’t think you’d be the type to care about what other people think of you.”

“I _don’t,_ ” Error snapped quickly. “I just don’t want to go a party where the host will make it his mission to make me miserable. It’s not worth it.”

Cosmo frowned, then sat down on the edge of the bed, much to Error’s surprise and disgruntlement. “If you don’t mind me asking – why does Dance hate you so much? Aside from the…” Cosmo pursed their lips. “…obvious.”

Error snorted. “The little abomination is a judgmental prick in the first place,” he said. “And of course, I destroyed his home, so he’s got a sworn vendetta against me. Really, I was doing him a favor.”

“You… destroyed his home? Like, did you burn down his house or something?”

“No, no. I demolished his whole universe. Tried to get him with it too, but he survived. I keep trying to get him, but he’s taken refuge in the alpha timeline.” Error glanced up at Cosmo’s horrified expression and guffawed loudly. “God, you’re so dumb. I’ve tried to tell you this. I _destroy_ things.”

Cosmo shook their head. “No, I know you do. It’s just a little hard to wrap my head around. Especially when you seem like…” they trailed off, thinking of the word for it.

Error’s expression softened and he blinked. “Seem like what?”

Cosmo lifted a finger. “A tiny dog.”

Error sputtered. _“What?”_

“A tiny dog,” Cosmo repeated. “You know. Super loud, barks a ton, can’t actually hurt you.”

Error glowered. “You think I couldn’t hurt you if I tried?”

Cosmo grit their teeth, ignoring the very real threat. If Error _truly_ wanted to, considering how much bigger he was than Cosmo, he could tackle them to the floor and strangle them here and now. But with his questionable motives and immense fear of human touch, Cosmo reminded themselves, it wouldn’t be likely. “Not with your magic gone.” They tapped their own bracelet briefly. “Maybe it makes me dumb, but despite those horrible things you’ve done, I just…” they sighed, meeting Error’s gaze, “I dunno. I think you might need a friend.”

Error’s face scrunched up. “Excuse me? Do you even comprehend what you’re saying?”

Cosmo shrugged. “Probably not, but you’re weirdly insistent that I do. Do you want me to be horrified of you?”

Error looked at them quizzically. “You asked me that before. And the answer is that you _should_ be.”

Cosmo shook their head. “Look. Just come to the party tonight. Have some food. I smelled chocolate as I passed the kitchen earlier. Do you like chocolate?”

Error froze. “Chocolate?”

Cosmo bit back a completely undignified snort at the sudden change in attitude. Error stared directly at them with widened eyes, dilated pupils, and a moderately slack jaw. “Is chocolate your favorite?”

Error snapped his jaw shut. “I – chocolate might be worth going,” he said, folding his arms and turning away.

Cosmo couldn’t contain their grin. “Perfect! Then will you come?”

“If Dance starts acting like I’m the plague, I’m out,” Error huffed. “But alright.”

“Yes!” Cosmo cheered. “You’ll have fun, I promise.”

Error rolled his eyes. “Doubt it.”

Cosmo paused for a moment, debating whether or not to say anything else, but the thought nagged at the back of their brain and refused to leave them alone. “Morbid question,” they started slowly, “but if Dance is such a bother to you and you’re normally as dangerous as everyone’s been saying, then… why isn’t Dance… you know…” Cosmo drew a finger across their neck as a euphemism for what they wanted to say.

Error raised a brow. “He’s taken refuge in the alpha timeline.”

“What’s the alpha timeline?” Cosmo asked, tilting their head. “Sorry if that should seem obvious, but you know. Not quite used to the whole multiverse thing.”

Error nodded, waving a hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah. Anyways, the alpha timeline is the original timeline, to put it simply. Every other universe originates from it.” Error clenched his fist. “A complete _perversion_ of it, if you ask me, and-”

“Okay, I get it now,” Cosmo said. “So why can’t you…?”

“I’m a glitch,” Error said point-blank. “Well, more so than the regular abominations I exterminate day-to-day.” He held his hand out, and for the first time since being brought here, Cosmo saw it waver. The dark russet color flickered into transparency and then returned to its previous opaqueness. Suddenly, Cosmo recalled watching Error on the cliffside, from a distance. They would always see him fade in and out, warping left and right like television static, but they had assumed it was a trick of the light from how far away they were viewing him. Seeing it up close made it obvious that no, it wasn’t a trick of the light. It was real.

“That looks painful,” is the first thing that came out of Cosmo’s mouth.

Error shrugged. “It probably was, once. Now it’s just something I deal with.” He pulled his hand back. “The alpha timeline is fortified against glitches in the code. If the alpha timeline is destroyed or collapses, every other universe dies as well. Stupidly enough, it allows other abominations in, but not- not _me._ They’re good enough to be there, but I’m-” Error cut himself off, shaking his head. “I can’t touch anyone who lives there. Physically, I can’t get in.”

“Oh,” Cosmo said. “That’s kind of… that would hurt.”

“Hurt?” Error asked. “It’s goddamn _frustrating._ Lots of survivors from places I’ve trashed scurry away to the alpha timeline, making my job _so_ much harder than it has to be. And the only person I could have even thought about helping me do the job is glitched-out like me now, too!” He paused as he practically boiled over with anger. “I – yeah.”

Cosmo thought for a moment over Error’s words. “Who do you mean?” they asked, though they already had a feeling. “Who’s glitched-out like you?”

“Blueberry,” Error huffed. “And it’s _my_ fault, like Nightmare so _graciously_ reminded me the other day.”

“Is that what you two were fighting about in the foyer?” Cosmo asked.

Error sighed. “Yeah. She was trying to get me riled up, no doubt. She usually does that sort of thing. I told her if she had a problem, she could settle it with her fists, which I didn’t think she would follow through on, but…” Error trailed off, then looked up at Cosmo, squinting. “Why am I telling you this?”

Cosmo didn’t reply, thoughts instead being drawn back to Nightmare. Nightmare, who fed off of negative energy. Nightmare, whose aura was mysteriously not inhibited. Being forced to live here and kill each other would certainly cause a lot of negativity – it must be a paradise for her. Cosmo felt their stomach drop. “The mastermind is hidden in this building…” they muttered. Of course. Blue hadn’t explicitly said who the mastermind _wasn’t._ What was stopping the mastermind from being hidden _among_ them?

“The _what_?” Error asked, and it was then that Cosmo realized that they’d spoken aloud.

“Sorry, I have to – the party,” Cosmo said, suddenly standing up and making a beeline for Error’s bedroom door. “I have to get ready for it.”

“Bullshit, the party’s not for hours!” Error called out. “Cosmo, what the hell did you just say?”

“Nothing!” Cosmo insisted. “Nothing. I was just talking to myself. See you at the party!” they said before quickly passing through the door and shutting it behind them, leaving an extremely bewildered Error.

Cosmo looked in the mirror and brushed some of their hair out of their eyes. It wasn’t like they needed a bunch of time to get ready – they had no fancy clothes on hand nor any products to do up their face and hair. However, that didn’t stop them from sitting in the shower until the water ran cold and Killer knocked on their bedroom door to tell them that _hey, you used all the hot water, asshole._ Cosmo quickly finished up and answered the door to profusely apologize to Killer, unaware that the pipes were all connected and that their shower would impact others’. With a huff and a quick reminder to not be late for the party, Killer left, and Cosmo clicked their bedroom door shut.

How long would they have had to sit there to drain the hot water from all of the bedrooms? Cosmo looked at their pruny fingertips and decided they’d rather not know.

Slowly, they blow-dried their hair, wringing every last drop of water from it before running their fingers through the fluffy mass of peach-colored strands. They changed into some fresh clothes before taking a glance at the mirror again. Their face was a little paler than usual, and their expression was haunted, to say the least. They didn’t want to worry about this party – not so much that it would ruin it. Cosmo took a deep breath. _It’s just a party. It’ll be fine._

Still a while before the party would start, Cosmo thought it would be best to drop by the kitchen to see how Horror was faring. Again, the smell of chocolate wafted through the kitchen door, and all of Cosmo’s worries melted away as their mouth watered. They pushed open the kitchen door.

“Hey, Horror,” they said, glancing over to the stove where Horror was managing what looked like three different pots and pans. “How’s it coming along?”

Horror glanced to Cosmo by the kitchen door and smiled. “Hey! Pasta sauce is happening right now. I hope everyone likes pasta, because I’m laying out a table with different types of pasta and sauces. And a dessert table. There’s stuff in the oven.”

“I smell chocolate,” Cosmo said.

“That would be the brownies.”

Cosmo took another deep inhale and sighed. “Yeah, that smells divine. Do you need any help carrying all of this upstairs?”

“That would be great, actually. I’ve got several plates of wrapped snacks over there on the counter,” Horror pointed behind her with a sauce-covered spoon, “that can be taken up to the ballroom now. Reaper told me they already set up some tables they found in a closet in the ballroom, so just grab some and start bringing them up there. You’ll probably have to make a few trips.” Cosmo nodded, moving to grab the plates that Horror had referred to.

Within a few trips upstairs and back down again, nearly everything had been moved. Horror had finished with the last bits of pasta and sauce, and those were taken upstairs with hot pads and ladles. On their last trip, Cosmo balanced a stack of plates and utensils while Horror held the last pot of noodles.

“You good there?” Horror asked.

“Yeah, I got it,” Cosmo replied, even with the tower they held teetering in their arms.

Thankfully, they didn’t drop it, and managed to set it all down in the ballroom without issue. Over the past couple of hours, Dance, Classic, and Reaper had messed with decorations enough to where the ballroom actually looked a little exciting. Streamers lined the room and the lights were dimmed enough to make the whole place feel pretty chill.

“Wow, that looks amazing,” Reaper said, looking across the tables at the food. “Horror, you made this by yourself?”

Horror nodded, “Yeah. It took me most of the day.”

“Damn, girl. Please tell me you’re a professional chef or something,” Reaper said. Horror mumbled something in reply, to which Reaper said, “Sorry, didn’t catch that – what did you say?”

“I work at a Burger King,” Horror muttered, embarrassed.

Reaper paused, then said, “When we get out of here, I’m helping you job hunt for a chef position at a nice restaurant. Or we’re going to get you out there as a caterer for hire.”

While Horror and Reaper continued on, Cosmo made their way over to Dance and Classic, who were hanging around the boom box. Dance was shuffling his feet like he couldn’t wait to start moving, and Classic was fiddling with the knobs on the boom box. He looked up as Cosmo approached.

“We knocked the dials out of whack earlier while practicing,” Classic admitted, embarrassed. “Samba’d right into the boom box and tripped over it.”

“Oh no, are you two okay?” Cosmo asked.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Dance admitted, pulling his hat down over his face as he looked away in embarrassment. “I was leading, though, so I should have watched where we were going.”

“No, hey,” Classic said, looking up at Dance, “I was in your line of sight. You were totally focused on the dance. If anything, it’s my fault for being so distracting.” He winked.

Dance snorted, then readjusted his ball cap to a normal level. “Yeah, yeah, sure,” he said. “Anyways, Cosmo, do you like the streamers?”

“Yeah, the decoration looks great,” they said. “Where did you get them?”

“We pooled our coins and stuff and took a crack at the gacha machine downstairs to see what we’d get,” Dance said. “That part was Reaper’s idea. I think on the fourth try, we got a bunch of streamers.”

“Awesome,” Cosmo said. Their attention was drawn away after a moment when the ballroom doors opened again and they looked over to see who was there. Hearts, with a smile on his face, entered the ballroom.

“Hey! Hope I’m not late,” Hearts called out.

“Nah, you’re like fifteen minutes early,” Classic replied. “Food’s here, though. If you’re hungry, check with Horror.”

“I might in a bit,” Hearts said, approaching the three of them at the boom box. “Hey Dance,” he greeted.

A strange expression crossed Dance’s face. “Hey,” he said minimally, dipping his head at Hearts. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

Hearts paused, then smiled, “Well, uh. Cosmo came by earlier to tell me that you invited everyone, and uh, that includes me. Thanks for throwing it by the way, it looks great. Happy to be here, really.” His expression softened, and the tension in the air eased slightly.

Dance pressed his lips together momentarily. “Yeah, uh – have fun.” He gave a small smile and a casual wave.

After a few more moments of silence, Hearts spoke again. “I think I’m gonna go talk to Horror about the food now. See you guys,” he said, and then turned and left.

Cosmo glanced to Dance. “…What was that about?”

Dance’s expression contorted. “Next time I say invite everyone, I mean everyone but him.”

Classic elbowed Dance in the side. “Be nice.”

“Ow, I get it,” Dance huffed. “Lust and I… don’t get along. Sorry you had to witness that pile of awkward, Cosmo.”

“Isn’t his name Hearts?” Cosmo asked.

“Right. Hearts. Isn’t that what I said?” Dance said. Classic elbowed him again. “Ouch! I get it!”

The ballroom doors opened again, this time for a group of people. Killer and Dust walked in first, followed by Cross and Nightmare. Cosmo looked over and debated saying hi to Cross, but the way she was locked by Nightmare’s side… Cosmo didn’t want to be near her right now. Dust and Killer seemed more feasible to approach, so Cosmo waved goodbye to Dance and went over to the two of them.

“…didn’t think she’d want to – oh hey, Cosmo!” Dust said, noticing them approach.

“Hey! Didn’t think you guys would come,” Cosmo said. “You didn’t seem too enthusiastic about it earlier.”

Killer shrugged. “Nightmare suddenly decided she wanted to go, so we were kind of obligated to. Cross suddenly thought it was a great idea as soon as Nightmare said so, though.”

Dust snickered. “What a simp.”

“I heard that!” Cross called from several feet away.

Dust cupped her hands around her mouth and called back, “It’s true!”

Cosmo joined in on the laughter as Cross averted her reddening face. It quickly died down as Nightmare shot them a piercing glare.

“Well, Horror made a bunch of food. I hope you’re hungry,” Cosmo said, directing the two of them to the table where Horror had given the go-ahead for people to start helping themselves.

Ink, Dream, Geno, and Error were the last three to arrive. Dream and Geno were present on the hour – perfectly punctual – and Error followed them in about five minutes later. Ink was the last to arrive, mumbling to Cosmo about how _oh god, I’m sorry, I totally forgot the party was happening!_ Cosmo took it in stride and welcomed Ink over to the table where everyone was gathered.

Time flew. Cosmo gathered their own plate and sat down next to Reaper and Ink, who immediately launched into an entire story about how they’d once gone on a very disastrous road trip. Cosmo listened intently until Dust butted in, insisting that _hey, that’s not how it went,_ and then proceeded to tell her own version of the story where she was the exasperated driver, stuck in a car for eight hours with Reaper, Ink, and Killer.

After what seemed like almost an hour, Dance very loudly cleared his throat. “Hey! Thank you guys for coming to this spontaneous party! You guys can thank Horror for the food-” he said and pointed to her, to which she was given a cheer from nearly everyone in the room, “-and Classic and I have a dance performance! After that, the two of us and Reaper can teach those of you who want to learn some basic samba.”

There were a couple more cheers as Classic brought the boom box over and set it down on the ground, well out of the way of where he and Dance were going to be dancing. Fiddling with the dial for a bit before poking the antenna, Classic gradually turned up the volume until the lively, upbeat song was wafting across the room.

“Perfect! Thank you radio host, whoever you are,” Dance said, barely audible above the music. He extended an arm out to Classic, who laughed and then took it.

The first thing Cosmo noticed about the way the two danced was that wow, their legs were moving fast - especially for Classic, someone Cosmo had pegged as slow and lazy. Classic’s movements were a little sloppier than Dance’s, whose moves were sharp and poised, but they were both filled with a type of energy that Cosmo didn’t expect from either of them.

Ink let out a cheer about thirty seconds in, leading to shouts of encouragement from everyone in the room. Cosmo, too, found themselves pumping their fist in the air and eventually clapping along to the beat of the song. Dance and Classic crossed the room, moving faster and faster until –

“Look out for the boom box!” Reaper suddenly shouted – too late, however, for Dance to steer himself and Classic out of the way. Classic let out a surprised shriek as both he and Dance tumbled over the boom box, one leg after another.

Everyone froze for a moment before Classic stuck his arm up in the air, giving a thumbs-up and laughing. “We’re okay!”

However, the music coming from the boom box started to slowly turn into static. Classic sat up and frowned, reaching out to fiddle with the dial before suddenly, the static stopped.

_“…this thing on? Hello?”_

Cosmo gaped as a voice came from the boom box. Garbled and low-quality as it was, it was still a voice – and it sounded like it was trying to talk to them.

 _“If this message is reaching you, good! Good, good. I’m so sorry to all of you who’ve been trapped in…”_ The static came back, then faded again, _“…killing game designed to take you all out. Just stay there, DON’T kill anyone, and I promise, I’ll do everything in my power to…”_ Another fade out, then back in, _“…running out of time, not sure when they’ll come back. I’ll try to record something else for you, but I’m not sure when…”_

The static faded out, and then the boom box started emitting loud, obnoxious feedback. Cosmo rushed to cover their ears while Dance rushed to unplug the boom box.

“…What was _that?”_ Hearts spoke first after the boom box had been turned off.

“A message from the outside?” Reaper said. “They mentioned a ‘killing game designed to take us all out.’ That… sounds like where we’re trapped right now.”

“I, for one, think this is a nonsensical ruse designed to worry us,” Nightmare spoke up. “It’s foolish to pay attention to it any more than we already have.”

“What?” Cosmo exclaimed suddenly, training their gaze on Nightmare. “It’s clearly from someone trying to _save_ us! Why on earth would they tell us to not kill anyone if they’re the one behind this whole mess?”

“Because,” Nightmare said lowly, “they want us to be confused and terrified, suffering here while we wait to be _rescued._ ”

“Sounds less like what they want and more like what _you_ want,” Cosmo blurted without thinking.

Nightmare paused. “Excuse me? What are you accusing me of?”

The room fell silent. Cross cleared her throat. “Cosmo, Nightmare… I think that’s enough. Look, we came here for a party. Wouldn’t it make sense to finish that before we talk about what just happened?”

“So you want us to ignore it?” Ink asked.

“That’s precisely what I suggested in the first place,” Nightmare huffed. “Yes. Ignore it.”

“No!” Cosmo said. “Don’t ignore it! It’s clearly _important,_ ” they stressed.

“I agree, I think it’s important,” Horror said, “But… I also want tonight to not be stressful. Like Cross said, we’re here for a party. Let’s finish it, okay?”

Cosmo watched in disbelief as others mumbled their agreement. They glanced over at Nightmare, whose gaze was cold as ice. Her mouth tilted into a small smile. Cosmo felt their blood run cold.

“I think I’m done for the night, regardless,” Cosmo said, standing up and making their way out of the ballroom.

Horror’s gaze followed them as they left, “Cosmo, wait, won’t you-”

For the second time that day, Cosmo left Horror behind, not offering any explanation for their departure. At first, Cosmo was walking, then they ran, into the foyer, down the stairs, and hooking to the right where the bedrooms were.

Cosmo fumbled their doorknob, stumbled into their bedroom, and shut the door behind them, immediately locking it from the inside. How could they all listen to Nightmare like that? Something was _clearly_ wrong. Nightmare was trying to throw them off, there was something up with that boom box, and _Nightmare-_

Nightmare was clearly behind all of this.

Shaking, Cosmo opened the door to their bathroom and leaned against the sink. They turned on the faucet and splashed cold water on their face. Somehow, it only made them feel colder. The jitters came and stayed, causing Cosmo’s hands to shake as they turned off the faucet. The cold got worse, worse, and worse. They couldn’t breathe. They couldn’t move.

Cosmo managed to calm themselves just a tad and take a few deep breaths. It wouldn’t do to hyperventilate here and cause another trial. Would there even be a trial if someone died of natural causes - or died because of their own doing? Cosmo didn’t want to find out. They stared into the mirror and at their face. It was paler than before. Maybe they just needed some good sleep.

How could they, though? The message from the boom box played over in their mind - this was a killing game designed to take them all out. What was the promise of escape if you got away with murder, then? Was that a lie? And who was it speaking on the other side of the radio? Whoever it was, Cosmo was clinging onto the hope that somehow, they could get out of here and escape the mastermind’s clutches. _Nightmare’s_ clutches.

The creak of their bedroom door startled them out of their thoughts. It clicked open, creaked once, twice, and then clicked shut. Who was that? Why were they here so soon? How long had Cosmo been standing there in the bathroom? They could have sworn that they just locked the door. Except… their key. _Their key was missing._ With their heart pounding in their throat, Cosmo peeked out of the bathroom.

The air was knocked out of Cosmo’s lungs as something large and black barreled into their throat and wrapped around it tightly. They choked and sputtered, reaching up to grab at the large mass that was holding them in a vice grip. Now, they _truly_ couldn’t breathe. They were yanked out of the bathroom almost as soon as they were grabbed, then felt their back hit the floor as they were slammed down.

“You think you’re clever?” Nightmare sneered as Cosmo looked up to see her bright eyes staring down at them. Behind her, three black masses wriggled in the air, protruding from her back – tentacles, like Killer and Dust had told them. “Trying to screw me over like that? You never belonged here, and now I’m going to make sure you pay for that.”

Cosmo wheezed. “You. You left that note.”

“That’s right,” Nightmare cooed. “I bet that gave you quite a scare, wondering who would come in at night to slit your precious, _traitorous_ throat.”

Cosmo’s clawing at the tentacle wrapped around their throat began to weaken as spots started to dance across their vision. They gasped for air that they couldn’t take in and weakly kicked, trying to do something, _anything_ to get Nightmare away from them.

As the tentacle constricted on their throat further, Cosmo had the realization that they were going to die here.

“Nighty night, Cosmo,” Nightmare muttered, and the last thing Cosmo saw before their vision turned black was Nightmare turning her gaze away toward the door.

Cosmo wondered what death felt like. Now, they assumed, they would know. The cold that Nightmare had brought them seemed to fade, and now they could move again, however slowly. Their neck and throat ached, and they began to stir. This was odd, they thought. Cosmo wasn’t a particularly religious person, and thus hadn’t thought an afterlife existed. If this was it, though, it was very underwhelming. It almost felt like real life.

Or, maybe it was. Were they somehow still alive? Attempting to curl their hand met them with the sensation of fingertips touching their palm. So whatever the case, they weren’t a ghost. With the strength they could muster, Cosmo pushed themselves into a sitting position and blinked their eyes open.

…Shoes. Or more accurately, boots. Those were the first things that Cosmo saw. A pair of dark navy boots, suspended in the air. Those boots weren’t just floating though, no, they were attached to a pair of legs… which was attached to a torso, and a head. A person, Cosmo thought as they backed up, scooting gently across the floor.

A person, whose navy clothing Cosmo recognized all too well. _Nightmare._

Their eyes opened wide and they finally realized who was in front of them, hanging by her neck with a rope tied to the ceiling.

__

Cosmo blinked once, twice, then let out an ear-splitting scream.

  
  



	6. Chapter 2 - Deadly Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all, thanks for waiting so patiently for this update! It's been quite a bit longer since the last update than it has been for previous updates, but honestly, this chapter was a real piece of work. It's shorter compared to the other chapters as well, but I did accomplish everything I wanted to (I hope), so... that aside, I hope you all enjoy!
> 
> No additional warnings this chapter that haven't been covered in the previous chapters (I think). Let me know if I should add anything in this note here.
> 
> Once again, huge thanks to my friend Allu for beta reading <3

Cosmo clapped a hand over their mouth as soon as the scream left them. Adrenaline and fear rushed through them as they scuttled backwards, distancing themselves from the hanging body in front of them until their back hit the wall. When they did, the rope holding Nightmare’s body aloft began to creak and turn.

Suddenly, the rope snapped, and the body fell to the floor with a sickening thump. Cosmo shrieked again, not quite believing their eyes. Their bedroom door suddenly rattled violently, as if someone were jiggling the doorknob.

“Cosmo, what the hell’s going on in there?” came a gruff voice. “Open the damn door!”

Scrambling to their feet, Cosmo ran to the door, fumbling with the lock before throwing it open. Error stood outside of their room, staring down at them with an expression that read more annoyed than concerned. His usual ponytail was undone, and he looked like he’d just woken up. “I could hear that scream all the way from my room,” Error huffed. “God, you look like a ghost. What, did you see a corpse?”

Wordlessly, with their lower jaw trembling, Cosmo nodded. They shakily pointed behind them, inside their room.

Error’s sneer quickly dropped and he pushed past Cosmo, the coarse fabric of his coat scraping against their cheek for how quickly he shoved them aside. Cosmo hurried after him, almost running straight into him when he stopped at the foot of their bed. After a moment of staring at Nightmare’s body, Error turned around to meet Cosmo’s gaze and pointed aggressively at Nightmare’s corpse. “Did you do this?”

Cosmo shook their head frantically. “No! She – I woke up and she was hanging from the ceiling,” they all but sobbed. “Up there.” Cosmo pointed to the broken light fixture, which was now no more than a hole in the ceiling with colored wires stretching across it. The plastic cap with wires sticking out of it now lay on the ground, rolled off against the wall.

Error ran a hand across the back of his head. “Jesus. Fuck,” he said, glancing down at her body with unease. “What happened?”

“I came back from the party and – Nightmare attacked me,” Cosmo said, nervously shuffling from side to side. How much should they say? Nightmare was dead, albeit Cosmo didn’t know how or why. It was incredibly clear that she was related in some way to the ‘mastermind’ that Blue had told them about, but what happened when the mastermind suddenly died in the middle of their killing game? “She tried to strangle me,” Cosmo continued, omitting the part about Nightmare’s magic and her tentacles, “and I think she almost did. I blacked out, and when I woke up, she was… hanging there.”

“Did you even check to see if she was alive?” Error asked.

Cosmo shook their head. “I didn’t think someone hanging from a rope by their neck would be alive.”

“Check her pulse, then!” Error gestured wildly to the corpse in front of them. “If she’s still alive, then we can ask her what the fuck she was doing trying to strangle you!”

“I – she’s dead, Error,” Cosmo said.

“Then why hasn’t the fuckin’ _body_ announcement gone off?” Error asked.

“It only goes off when three or more people find a corpse!” Cosmo said. “And last I checked, you plus me only equals two!”

Error crossed his arms. “Check – check her pulse anyways.”

“Why don’t you do it?”

“I’m not _touching_ her.”

“You think I want to touch a corpse?”

“I’m not touching anyone who’s _alive,_ either _._ But better you than me, anyways,” Error said.

Unease filling their stomach, Cosmo bent down to Nightmare’s body and plucked her wrist off of the ground. They pulled her sleeve back, revealing the black bangle they all wore. They nearly set it down to check her pulse on the other arm, but something caught their eye. All around and under the cuff were scratch marks, dark and red – some even a little bit bloody, where skin had been broken.

Cosmo quickly set down her arm and checked the other one for a pulse. Nothing.

“Dead?” Error asked.

Cosmo nodded. “Y…yeah.”

“Just great,” Error groaned. He lifted his fist and pounded on the wall before turning his head towards the open door. “Everybody wake the _fuck_ up!” he shouted, none too gently.

There were a few moments of silence before the first couple of doors opened, bringing with them a very tired and annoyed Geno and an equally exhausted Dust. Geno paused at the doorway to Cosmo’s room with a blanket draped around her shoulders and reached up to rub at her eyes. Dust nearly crashed into her from behind. “Error, what was the shouting… for…” Geno trailed off, her gaze drifting to the floor. A chime came from the loudspeaker.

_“A body has been discovered!”_

“Geno. Geno, let me through,” came the hoarse voice of Dust. “Let me through, damn it!”

“Dust, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to-”

“It’s her, isn’t it?!” Dust desperately raised her voice. “Let me _through!_ ”

_“Please report to room four in the sleeping quarters immediately. You have a certain amount of time to conduct your investigation, and when that time is up, the trial will begin! Good luck to you all!”_

_“LET ME THROUGH!”_ Dust shouted, and despite Geno’s best attempts, Dust managed to slip past her, rushing immediately to Nightmare’s side. Cosmo backed away from the body, and Dust ever so gently lifted Nightmare’s head and torso off of the ground, pulling her close. “Nightmare. No. _No,_ you gotta – you can’t be dead, _please!_ ”

“I checked her pulse,” Cosmo said as nausea built in their stomach. “She… she’s gone.”

Dust shook her head, fingers digging into the fabric of Nightmare’s shirt. “No. No, she wouldn’t.”

More commotion came from the hallway outside Cosmo’s room, and they felt their heart rate pick up faster and faster as everyone else came out of their rooms, clamoring about the announcement. Cosmo’s vision started to blur as people brushed and bumped past them, swarming around the corpse that lay on the floor of their bedroom.

The corpse. _Nightmare’s_ corpse.

“Cosmo, hon, you don’t look too good,” Hearts said, and they barely registered he was speaking to them at all until they felt his hand on their arm. They jolted.

“I need to step outside,” Cosmo said, head spinning. Hearts nodded, guiding them past the door and into the hallway. The clamor faded into the background as Hearts closed their bedroom door and Cosmo was left with only him and the sound of their own frantically beating heart.

“Hey. Breathe with me, alright, sweetpea?” Hearts said. “You’re okay. You’re going to be okay.”

Cosmo shook their head. Their throat burned as they struggled to breathe. They reached up and touched their neck only to recoil their hand as a sharp bolt of pain passed through the spot they’d touched.

“Oh my goodness, darling, what happened to you? Those bruises…” Hearts trailed off, glancing at their neck with worry.

Cosmo pursed their lips. “…How bad are they?” they asked.

Hearts made a face. “Well, they certainly aren’t pretty. What happened to you, Cosmo?”

“I…” they trailed off, then swallowed hard. “I don’t even know what to make of it. Nightmare attacked me, and now she’s…” Cosmo didn’t finish their sentence, instead letting their gaze trail off to the side where Cross was running down the hallway towards them. She hurried past, but stopped at the door, turning back to look at Cosmo and Hearts.

“Who?” Cross asked simply.

Hearts grimaced and shook his head. “Cross, I’m not sure you should-” he started, but as soon as he did, Cross pushed past the door and into Cosmo’s room. While the door was open, Cosmo heard Dust shouting from inside.

“-whoever did this, they’re _dead!”_

Cosmo felt their stomach twist and turn. “It’s my fault,” they whispered, giving a glance over to Hearts. “I…” their words caught in their throat. They stuffed their hands in their jacket pockets and their fingers brushed against the piece of paper they’d been given. _You don’t belong here._ Two days ago, someone had stolen their key, and… wait, two days ago? What time was it?

Hearts’ expression slowly morphed into something horrified. “You… no, you didn’t kill her, did you?” he asked, eyes wide.

Cosmo shook their head. “I didn’t kill her, no! But I think… I think it’s my fault she died.” Their outburst at the party combined with whatever the note meant certainly didn’t help, at least.

“What do you mean? Cosmo, if you didn’t do it, don’t blame yourself. Can you just tell me what happened?” Hearts paused. “Do you think this has something to do with last night at the party?”

“Last night?” Cosmo echoed. “What time is it, Hearts?”

“Three in the morning, I think,” he said.

Cosmo blinked. “I… what time did I leave the party?”

“Around ten, I think. Pretty much everyone else stayed for about an hour after.”

“And Nightmare? When did she leave?”

Hearts thought for a moment. “Come to think of it, she did leave a bit before everyone else. I’m not sure when, though.”

“It must have been right after she left, then,” Cosmo muttered. “I left the party, went back to my room, and Nightmare came in, and she – she tried to strangle me, and I passed out. I’ve been out for almost… four and a half hours.”

Hearts looked a little skeptical. “Wouldn’t you have regained consciousness before then?” he asked. “If you were strangled, you’d wake up in minutes. But hold on, Nightmare tried to kill you?”

Cosmo nodded. “I – she-” they started, “I don’t know why.” _I do know why._ “I woke up, and she was just… hanging from the ceiling.” Another wave of nausea rolled through their stomach and they pressed their hand over their mouth. “From the – from the broken light fixture.”

Hearts glanced Cosmo up and down for a moment, then suddenly reached out and took their hand. He lifted it up and stared at their fingertips.

“…Hearts?”

“…Hon, what’s on your nails?”

Cosmo lifted their other hand and took a good look at their fingertips. Barely visible below the nails were patches of black residue. They recalled the moments before they’d passed out, as they’d reached up and clawed at the tentacles around their neck. “I… it was from Nightmare.”

“How could she have had her magic?” Hearts said. “I know what her magic looks like, but with the bracelets we’ve got, there’s no way she should have any.”

“That’s what I’m confused about,” Cosmo said. Lowering their voice, they added, “I thought... I thought she was behind all this, which would have explained everything, even the magic, but now she’s dead and I just-” Cosmo took a deep breath, reaching up and running their fingers through their hair. “I can’t imagine why, or… or _who_ would do it.”

“Someone had to have done it, right?” Hearts said. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be having a trial or an investigation.”

The door to Cosmo’s bedroom opened again, and a grave looking Dream stood in the doorway. “Cosmo, Hearts,” he greeted. “Come inside. We… need to discuss the murder.” Unlike usual, Dream’s tone was clipped and soft, and Cosmo noticed one of his hands was clenched at his side. He stepped aside, gesturing for them and Hearts to step inside. With trepidation, they did.

Over by the wall, Dust’s face was buried in Horror’s shoulder, and Cross stood in front of them both, shaking with barely concealed rage. Killer was leaned against the wall, gaze stone cold and unmoving. Geno was whispering to Reaper, who couldn’t decide whether or not to tear her gaze away from the corpse in the center of the room. Down by the body crouched Ink, strangely silent, with Classic behind him and Dance not far. Error stood on the other side of the body, and he nodded silently when he noticed Cosmo walk in.

“All right,” Cross spoke up once the door closed behind Dream and Hearts. “We need to establish what happened.” Her gaze zeroed in on Cosmo. “Error tells me he heard you screaming in the middle of the night, then ran to your room and banged on the door until you unlocked it and let him in. Is this true?”

Cosmo’s heart pounded in their chest. “Yeah, that’s true,” they said softly.

Cross scowled. “Then, Cosmo, can you tell me why you were the only one in the locked room with Nightmare’s dead body? It’s _your_ bedroom. You’re the only one with a key.”

“I – I don’t know what happened, I was out cold for the past four hours! And – and my key’s _gone,_ ” Cosmo said, turning out the pockets of their jeans first and then their coat pockets. The only thing in any of them was the piece of paper that the thief had exchanged for their key.

“Even if you don’t have your key, that doesn’t prove that someone else has it.”

“Oh, are you looking for your key?” Ink piped up. He raised his hand, Cosmo’s key dangling from his fingertips. “It was in Nightmare’s pocket. Dunno how she got it.”

 _Shit._ Of course Nightmare would have their key. How would she have gotten into their room otherwise? “She had to have stolen it from me,” Cosmo said. “I lost my key a couple of days ago, and – and I got this note in its place, see?” They fumbled with the piece of paper they held, trying to show the message to Cross.

“Oh, give it up already,” Dust hissed. “We know you did it, and there’s no point in denying it.”

“But I didn’t!” Cosmo insisted. The gazes around them – disgust from Dance and Horror, disbelief from Classic and Reaper, stone cold silence from Killer, Geno, and Dream – they bored into Cosmo’s skin. They wanted to curl up and fade out of sight. “I don’t know how she died or who killed her, I just know what happened four hours ago and what happened when I woke up.”

“I don’t think you understand,” Dust said. “I _know_ you murdered her in cold blood and I’m going to _vote_ for your sorry ass at the trial. I hope you die by leeches too,” she spat.

“I didn’t kill her!” Cosmo said again. “I’ll prove it if I have to!”

“Hey hey, _whoa_ there!” shouted a grating, distorted voice coming from the direction of the bedroom door. Cosmo glanced behind them to see Blue, who’d appeared alongside them all. “I’m not one to interfere with such a case of juicy emotional drama, but save that for the trial, won’tcha?” he asked, sticking out his lower lip in a pout. “Making your case now ruins the point of the trial. Now off with you. Go investigate!”

Cosmo felt a sick sense of relief flood their chest when Blue intervened. They glanced to Blue, who held their gaze with equal fervor. Blue. He smiled, dipping his head to the side, and then waved his hands furiously. “Go! Murder won’t solve itself!”

He blinked out of existence.

“This isn’t over,” Dust hissed, glaring intensely at Cosmo. “You’re going to pay for what you’ve done.”

Cosmo’s stomach twisted. “I promise you; I’ll find out who did this,” they said. “And they _will_ pay. But convicting me won’t get us anywhere.”

“Us?” Dust said, then let out a sharp laugh. “There is no _us._ ” She paused, looking around the room for a moment. “I – I want two people guarding her,” she said, pointing down at Nightmare’s body, “at all times. To make sure _they-”_ she pointed directly at Cosmo, “-don’t screw with the murder scene.”

“That’s-!” Cosmo started, then cut themselves off. It was reasonable. It would prevent the _actual_ murderer from hiding any more evidence as well. “As long as I can still investigate.”

“You’re the prime suspect, you think anyone’s going to let you stand within five feet of her?” Killer said, tone wavering. It was the first time he’d spoken up.

“ _Whoops,_ almost forgot!” came the voice of Blue once again. Cosmo turned around just in time for Blue to have appeared out of nowhere and walked up to them – he was an eerily small distance away from their face – and hand them a plastic folder. Cosmo was frozen for a moment before Blue simply grabbed their hand and placed the folder in it by force.

“Wh – what’s this?” Cosmo asked.

“Call it, uh…” Blue waved his hand around, “A debriefing. Last trial was fun, but I think you’d all prefer to know the real victim from the start, hmm?”

Confused, Cosmo opened the file. Inside were a few sheets of paper – most of them with pictures of Nightmare’s dead body from all angles. Where the hell did Blue get these photos? _When_ did he take them?

“I don’t understand-”

“Just read the damn thing,” Blue sighed, rolling his eyes. “I don’t have time for this. You’re also wasting your precious investigation time, you know.” Quickly, Cosmo’s gaze found the one sheet of paper with something written on it.

“Case number two,” they read aloud. “The victim is Nightmare de la Manzana.” _Didn’t know she had a last name._ “The time of death is approximately eleven thirty PM. The body was found in room number 4 in the sleeping quarters, belonging to-” Cosmo gulped, “Cosmo Serif.” They held the folder tighter. “The victim was first discovered hanging from the ceiling by her neck with a rope. There are signs of bruising on her neck. Death was instantaneous.”

As soon as they’d finished, Cross snatched the folder out of Cosmo’s hands and scoured the text herself. She lowered the folder and then closed it. “That’s what it says,” she admitted. “Anyone else want a look?” Cross held out the folder, and Dust took it.

“Why give this to us?” Dance asked Blue. “Wouldn’t it just make things easier?”

Blue waved his hand. “Not _too_ easy, I hope. I’ll be pretty angry if I had to give you that," he gestured to the folder, "and it ruins the trial."

Cosmo glanced to Blue. “What do you mean, _had to?_ ”

For a second, Blue looked surprised, as if he were caught saying something he shouldn’t have. Then his expression contorted into a sneer, and he replied, “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Before Cosmo could reply, he contorted and disappeared.

“Well, we should use what we have,” Hearts said. “If we can trust that what Blue says on that file is true, then all that information is incredibly useful. Time of death, information about the murder itself – we can use that to determine how she died.”

“We don’t need to know _how,_ ” Geno muttered. “We only need to know _who._ ”

Hearts rolled his eyes. “Yes, but the how helps us discover the who.”

“I’m not so sure we don’t already know the who,” Reaper told her, shifting her gaze nervously at Cosmo.

“Hey,” Error grumbled. “Save it for the trial. The sooner we get this investigation done, the sooner we can get this over with.”

“He’s right. We need to get working. We don’t want to miss anything that could be crucial to the case,” Classic said. He tugged on the arm of a protesting Dance. “Come on. I want to go check something out in the ballroom.”

Cosmo watched as Classic, Dance, and a few others filed out of the bedroom. Dream and Ink, they noted, were staying close to Nightmare’s body. It looked like they were the two that were assigned to guard it, whatever that meant. Cosmo stepped closer, and Dream held out a hand.

“You’ll have to stay back,” he said.

“Me specifically?” Cosmo asked, though they already knew it was the case. Dream nodded.

“It’s okay, I’ll look through it all for you!” Ink chirped. He still sat with legs crossed next to the corpse on the floor with a patient smile. “Oh, do you want your key back?” he asked, holding up the key he’d found on Nightmare’s person.

“Hold up, that’s evidence,” Dream said. “I think we have to keep it.”

“What, are we going to scan it for fingerprints?” Ink said sarcastically. “They can have it back. I’m pretty sure the only thing relevant about it is where I found it.” He tossed the key back to Cosmo, who just barely caught it instead of fumbling and dropping it. They looked to Dream, who pressed his lips together tightly, but didn’t say anything.

Cosmo slowly pocketed their key. “What else have you found?” they asked, wishing they could move closer and get a better look, but the way Dream’s gaze was trained on them made it impossible.

Ink tilted his head back and forth. “Nothing that’s any less than confusing,” he said after a moment’s deliberation. “The back of her shirt is completely soaked through with black residue.”

“Wait, what?” Dream blurted. “Show me.”

Ink unceremoniously put his hands under Nightmare’s back and pushed upwards, flipping the body over with a thump. Cosmo winced. True to Ink’s statement, the back of her shirt was dark and wet. The color was a bit difficult to distinguish from the navy color of the fabric, but Ink swiped a finger through it and held it up. Black was smeared across his fingertip.

“That’s bizarre,” Dream muttered.

“I know, right? Her bracelet is perfectly intact,” Ink said, tracing another finger across the black bangle on her wrist. “No sign of it being broken at all. It must have been disabled intentionally, for whatever reason.”

“Not just that,” Dream said, “but she’s always so careful when she de-summons them. She hates making a mess out of her clothes.”

“Right, because you have time for that when you’re being murdered,” Ink snickered. Dream fell quiet, and Cosmo coughed softly. Ink blinked. “Huh? Oh. Sorry,” he said, grimacing. “But you get my point.”

“What I’m wondering is how she died,” Cosmo muttered. “If she had magic, how could someone kill her? She’d fight back, obviously, and from what I know, she’s very strong. Who could overpower her?”

“Maybe she was tricked,” Dream muttered. “I don’t know if anyone _could_ overpower her unless they also had magic. Is there any other clue as to how she died?”

“The rope, but that’s obvious,” Ink said. “Signs of bruising on her neck.” He paused, running a hand through his hair. “There’s the broken light fixture on the floor. The bulb is shattered. It looks like it was pulled out intentionally. And…” he thought for a moment, “not much else. She might have just been hung. Or strangled.”

“Usually when people are… hung, the cause of death is their neck being snapped,” Dream offered. “Is there any sign of that?”

Ink shook his head. “Just the bruises, which only support the theory of asphyxiation. It’s not a terribly strong piece of evidence, either.” He glanced towards the doorway, where Hearts was inspecting the knob and lock. “See anything over there?” he called out.

Hearts glanced up after a moment, finally registering that Ink was talking to him. “I’m trying to see if there’s any sign of a break-in,” he said. “Because that could explain why Cosmo was alone in here for so long.”

“I don’t think there would be,” Geno spoke up from her place situated against the wall near the door. “Damaging or destroying locked doors is against the rules, and I don’t think Blue would let that slide.”

“Even if it were for a murder?” Hearts said.

Geno shook her head. “Even if it were. Besides, if it were broken, why would Error have trouble getting in the room earlier? It wouldn’t have been locked.”

Hearts nodded. “We need to confirm that with him. I think he went to the ballroom.”

“I’ll go,” Cosmo spoke up suddenly. “I can’t do much around here anyways.” They gestured vaguely in the direction of Nightmare’s corpse.

Dream gave them a curt nod. “See you at the trial,” he muttered.

Cosmo, with an awkward glance towards those left in the room, dipped their head and hustled out of the bedroom, leaving the enigma of Nightmare’s corpse in their wake.

Cosmo pushed the ballroom doors open while the pit in their stomach churned. Who was here? Dance and Classic in the corner, Killer and Cross examining the tables, and Error crouched by the boom box. Cosmo did their best to ignore the dirty looks and made a beeline for Error.

“What are you doing here?” Error mumbled when Cosmo got close.

“Had to get out of the bedroom,” they answered honestly, a little reluctant. “I also came here to confirm a few things for the investigation, since no one would let me near the body.”

Error nodded absentmindedly. His gaze was focused on the boom box. “Ask away, but don’t get in my way.” He fiddled with the boom box’s station dial for a moment before opening the CD player. The lid popped open, and it was empty.

“Actually, what _are_ you doing?” Cosmo asked, stepping around to the other side to meet Error’s gaze better.

Error looked up, and upon noticing that Cosmo was in fact staying a healthy distance from him, scowled slightly and begrudgingly looked back down to the boom box. “Nothing you need to know about. Just do what you need to do and then leave me alone.”

Cosmo frowned and crossed their arms. “Is what you’re doing important to the investigation?”

“No.”

“Then why are you doing it right now? We only have a limited amount of time!” Cosmo stressed.

Error looked up. “ _You_ have a limited amount of time. _I_ could care less.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I think you know what I mean by that.”

Cosmo paused and grit their teeth. “I didn’t kill-”

“I know you didn’t, so shut up and let me do this.”

Cosmo blinked and was silent for a moment, trying to process the whiplash they’d been given. “What?”

“You heard me.”

Cosmo reached up and ran a hand through their hair. “You’re being confusing! Right now we’re supposed to be figuring out who killed Nightmare, and you’re here just – fiddling with a boom box and giving me cryptic, conflicting answers!”

“So?”

“So it’s – annoying, firstly, and secondly, freaking me out!” Cosmo gripped their hair tighter. They looked down at Error, whose lips were pressed together tightly. The corners of his mouth twitched. “You’re doing this on purpose.”

Error shrugged. “I think you deserve it. You still haven’t told me anything about what you were saying to me before the party last night?”

“Before – what?”

Error finally pulled himself away from the boom box, giving Cosmo his full attention. “Before the party last night. You said something about a mastermind.”

Cosmo let their hand sink from their head and drag down the side of their face. “I don’t – I don’t even know what to believe about that anymore,” they said. “I don’t even know if I should say anything regardless.”

“Why, were you threatened?” Error snorted, and for the second time in less than an hour, Cosmo nodded at Error’s joking assumption. Error’s snarky grin dropped. “Oh – oh come on. We’re in a _killing game._ Your death is imminent anyways. Spit it out.”

Slowly, Cosmo realized he was right. “…Alright,” they muttered. “It was before the first trial, and I was in the pantry looking for something for Horror. Blue appeared out of nowhere just to tell me that there was a mastermind hidden somewhere in the building. And I thought – I don’t know, I thought it could have been one of us. A person among us, using Blue as a false mascot for their game, and…” Cosmo trailed off. “That’s ridiculous, isn’t it?”

“You think?” Error said. “You have _zero_ reason to trust that stupid blueberry. If he threatened you to keep it a secret, what do you think are the odds that he was just screwing with you, making you paranoid?” Error knocked his knuckles on the side of his head. “Honestly, Cosmo, you’re kind of dense.”

“Well, thanks for that,” Cosmo huffed.

“What made you believe it so much anyways?” Error said. “You’re dense, but not _that_ dense.”

“Was that supposed to be a compliment?” Cosmo giggled despite themselves.

“Not really, but I still want to know the answer.”

Cosmo let out a sigh. “I thought it was Nightmare. I was _so_ sure of it.” They look down at their unwashed nails, black residue still hiding between the gap of nail and fingertip. “I thought I was going to die because I’d noticed too late. She had her _magic,_ Error.”

“No way she had her magic,” Error huffed.

“Error, I don’t think I’d hallucinate a woman with four massive black tentacles.”

Error rolled his eyes. “Maybe you did, I dunno. But these bracelets are the real deal, Cosmo. I haven’t been able to do anything magical since coming here, so I doubt that _she-”_ Error gestured flippantly over his shoulder, “would have been able to break that binding long enough to try to strangle you with those.”

Cosmo shook their head and held out their hand. “You see my nails? The black stuff? That’s all over Nightmare right now, soaked through the back of her shirt. If you want to, you can see it even clearer than I did, since you’ll actually be let close to the body.”

Error’s face scrunched up. “You’ve got to be kidding me. How the hell did that happen?”

“I don’t know. Ink said the bangle’s in perfect condition,” Cosmo said, and shrugged. “They’re just trying to figure out how the murder would have happened if she had her magic. My bedroom door was locked when you got to it, right?”

“Now that you mention it, yeah, that’s odd,” Error muttered.

“That’s actually why I came out here. Hearts wanted me to confirm that. Because there’s no sign of a break-in, the key was on Nightmare’s body, and so that means that the only murder suspect is… still me.”

“There isn’t anyone with another key, is there?”

Cosmo shook their head. “Not to my knowledge. I’m certain Nightmare had the key on her when she came in, too, which is how she got inside in the first place. The key was stolen from me before the first trial and replaced wis this note.” They reached in their pocket, feeling for the piece of paper before holding it out for Error to take. He awkwardly took it from them, making sure not to touch their hand before holding it up so he could read it himself.

“You don’t belong here?” Error read out loud. “What the hell?”

“Nightmare left it; I’m certain of that at least. She told me so as she was... well, strangling me.” Cosmo winced as they reached up, ghosting fingertips over their own neck. “Did she leave the party at the same time as everyone else? Is – is there anyone else who could have done it? What was the time of death? Eleven PM? What-?”

“Cosmo, stop,” Error said. “I think most of us were gone from the ballroom by then, but Nightmare left just a little before everyone else did. That lines up with what you say happened to you, but honestly, I’m not sure what else we can prove.”

Cosmo let out a shaky breath. “…Okay. Thanks for trying anyways, though.”

Error raised a brow. “Did – what?”

Cosmo blinked. “I mean like… thanks for trying to console me. And help my case, I don’t know, I assumed that’s what you were doing since you don’t think I’m the murderer.”

Error’s nose scrunched up. “I – I did _not_ console you, that’s – you’re full of shit if you think that! I’m just trying to look out for myself, because in case you haven’t noticed, idiot,” he said, pressing his pointer finger to his temple, “We all die if we get it wrong.”

Cosmo blinked and leaned back a little, then laughed. “Oookay. Whatever you say, Error.”

“I’m serious!”

“I think you might be a little bit in denial,” Cosmo said, laughing and pressing their fingers together in a gesture showing exactly how small a ‘little bit’ was.

“Shut up. Fuck you.”

Cosmo’s laughter died down, but before either they or Error could say anything else, a chime came from the loudspeaker.

_“Alrighty now! Please put all your investigative tools down – or evidence-hiding tools, if you’re our dearest murderer – and report to the common room immediately. The investigation period is officially over. From there, you will all be escorted to the trial grounds, where our group trial will commence! Good luck to you all!”_

“Is it just me, or was that a hell of a lot shorter than the last time?” Dance called from across the ballroom.

“No, you’re definitely right,” Cosmo called back. They turned to Error. “What am I going to do? I have hardly any evidence, I don’t know what in the hell is going to happen, I have no idea who did it, I just – I just know it wasn’t me.”

Error shrugged. “Hell if I know either. But honestly, if this bunch of idiots came through last time when a literal parasite was possessing someone, I think you might have a chance. A small one.”

“That doesn’t make me feel much better. I think you got significantly worse at the consoling thing.”

“I try,” Error snarked back at them. “Come on, let’s head down to the common room.”

“I…” Cosmo hesitated. “I don’t even want to go.”

“Well neither do I, but between death now and death later, I choose later. Come on, Cosmo. If I have to get someone to drag you down there, it won’t be pretty.”

Cosmo started to shuffle forward. “Oh, so now you’re concerned about me again.”

“I’m concerned that they’ll vote you if you don’t show up and defend yourself! And then I’ll die!” Error exclaimed as they both made their way through the double doors.

“Sure,” Cosmo muttered, and then dropped the subject.

The common room was full by the time they arrived, and if Cosmo was feeling in any way pleasant, their mood was completely soured when they stepped in the room. All eyes were on them, and it wasn’t pleasant. Whispers gently rose from all corners of the room, but instead of the paranoia this first time everyone had been in this room for a murder trial, all Cosmo felt was an unending sense of dread. There was no question as to what they were talking about. If Cosmo listened a bit closer, they could easily catch their own name being spoken of as if it were a disease.

“Well, erm,” Cosmo spoke up finally, “What are we waiting for? The elevator?”

No one replied for a while.

“Blue’s not here yet,” Ink said when he realized no one else was going to say anything.

“Ah. Right,” Cosmo muttered, shoving their hands into their coat pockets. More silence. Before now, they didn’t understand it when people said silence could be deafening, but now? They understood more than ever.

A loud pop finally broke the quiet and Blue himself shifted into existence in the middle of the common room. “Howdy, there!” he exclaimed, clapping his hands together excitedly. “What are you all standing around here for? I thought you’d just shuffle on into the trial room like the nice little murder-sheep you are!”

Cosmo bristled, but said nothing.

“You need to open the elevator I think,” Hearts said, and Blue turned around to the fireplace, which currently displayed no signs of being an actual elevator.

“Ah! Silly me,” Blue muttered, and clapped his hands together. The fireplace sunk into the wall, soon replaced with a pair of elevator doors. They opened with a soft ding. “Alright now, everyone inside!”

The ride down was quieter than the time before, if that was even possible. To avoid accidentally brushing into anyone else, Cosmo hugged the corner of the elevator, looking down at their feet. If they didn’t make any eye contact with the others, surely they’d escape this dread. As it was, it built up in the pit of their stomach, tossing and turning. The first real trial had been different. That time, they were on the same page with everyone else – confused, scared. At least that time, they’d had each other. This time, however? Cosmo wasn’t sure if there was anyone who was truly on their side. Error had said he believed they didn’t kill Nightmare, but that was one out of twelve other people. The other eleven could still hold a majority vote, and then where would they be?

The elevator shook to a halt, and the doors opened. Slowly, they all flooded the trial room, approaching their designated podiums. Cosmo gripped the furnished wood of their own podium, and looked to their left and right. No one stood there, and for a moment, Cosmo wondered if there were people disgusted enough by them that they would refuse to even stand next to them – but no. On their left was Fresh’s portrait, covered in a red X, and on their right was the newly installed portrait of Nightmare, also with a large red X drawn over her face.

Isolated physically as well. How fitting.

“All right, all right, I know you all have just been _dying_ to get to this,” Blue drawled, punctuating his own morbid pun with a giggle. He’d placed himself atop the raised wooden throne at the head of the circle of podiums, decorative gavel in hand. “A lot of you are quite convinced of the outcome already! That’s certainly interesting.”

“Get on with it,” Dust snapped. “No one has time for your games anymore. We want justice. _I_ want justice.”

Blue’s face wrinkled up and he waved a dismissive hand. “Alright, jeez, impatient. Though I guess I can’t disagree, since I’m quite eager myself. Anyways!” He smacked the gavel on the arm of his chair.

_“Let the trial begin!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i know that "de la manzana" means "of the apple" but did i care when bullshitting a last name? no


	7. Chapter 2 Trial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter contain very blatant, obvious spoilers, so if you need to view them, you may do so via [this link.](https://pastebin.com/cJTBgnGP)
> 
> Huge thanks to Allu once again for beta reading! <3

_“Let the trial begin!”_

Cosmo took a deep breath. In. Out. Things were going to be all right.

“So, Cosmo. Have anything to say in your defense before we vote you off the face of the earth?” Dust immediately said.

Well, that was certainly a great start. “You’re making a huge mistake,” Cosmo said. “I didn’t kill her, I swear.”

“All of the evidence is stacked against you,” Killer spoke up. “You were locked in your room alone with Nightmare. No one else could have gotten inside.”

“We haven’t even gone over any of the evidence yet,” Cosmo said. “You’re not even going to give me a chance to defend myself?”

“Why, so we’ll vote wrong and you’ll go free?” Dance scoffed. “Not a chance, Cosmo.”

“Hold on,” Hearts said. “We should at least go over all the evidence.”

Dance sent an incredulous glare towards Hearts. “We already know who did it. There’s no point.”

Hearts bristled. “Maybe if you had a shred of intelligence, you’d understand that since you believe so strongly that Cosmo did it, the evidence should support you.”

Dance rolled his eyes. “Would you just shut up? I don’t think anyone actually _cares_ at this point. We have the culprit right in front of us.”

“Are you even listening to a single word I’m saying? I’m on your _side_!”

“And I don’t _care._ ”

“You _should_ care,” Reaper spoke up. “This is someone’s life you’re talking about. I agree most of the evidence supports the theory that it’s Cosmo, but we need to be sure. Not only for the sake of justice, but for the sake of our own lives as well.”

The room fell silent. Cosmo held their breath while the rest of the courtroom looked around in unease.

“Well?” Blue spoke up. “Should I call up voting time already, or would you all like to discuss the case a little more thoroughly?”

“No, let’s not vote yet,” Dream said. “It would be pretty foolish to vote without going over the case at least once.”

“…Fine,” Dust said once Dream had agreed. “Only – only ‘cause you cared about her too.”

Dream nodded solemnly towards Dust. “Where do we start, then?”

“I think we should start by figuring out how she got her magic,” Ink said quickly, leaning forward against his podium. “That’s the most mysterious thing about this whole case, and until we figure that out, we shouldn’t decide on anything.”

“Are you sure that’s her magic?” Reaper asked. “And it’s not faked?”

“No, it’s the real deal,” Horror said. “And Cross, Killer, Dust, and Dream can confirm that. We’ve all seen it often enough for that.”

“If it was real, maybe her bracelet was damaged,” Classic piped up. “And then she decided to use that to her advantage.”

 _No, that was wrong._ “Her bracelet wasn’t damaged, though,” Cosmo said. “It was completely intact. There were scratches on her skin all around it, though. The bracelet must have been too strong for whatever was trying to damage it.”

“And we know you’re telling the truth _how?_ ” Dance muttered from Cosmo’s left. He leaned in, giving them a suspicious glare. “It could be broken and you’re just not saying anything.”

“They’re right, though,” Ink piped up. “Jeez, just because they’re the prime suspect doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take what they say into consideration! It could be important, even if they’re lying to get us all murdered.”

Cosmo pressed their lips together. “I mean… thanks?”

“No problem!” Ink chirped. “But yes, the bracelet was intact. I saw it myself.”

“So did I,” Dream said.

“Then maybe it was taken off,” Cross muttered, “And put back on after death to cause confusion.”

“That’s a possibility,” Hearts said. “Or maybe it was just powered off. In order to restrict magic, they have to be magic themselves, so maybe some sort of magical power surge.”

“But where would she have gotten it from? Who here would have magic besides Blue?”

The court fell silent. Cross brought up a good point – those bracelets couldn’t be taken off without magic. Someone else would have needed to power off or remove the bracelet. The only person who could still access their magic – that they knew of – was Blue. He’d already stated he wouldn’t interfere in a murder, but could they really trust him on that point?

“Blue _could_ have messed with her bracelet,” Cosmo suggested. “It’s not like we have any reason to believe he wouldn’t.”

“Except for the fact that I’m overseeing the trial,” Blue said, waving his little gavel. “Trust me, I put this game altogether for you! I wouldn’t meddle in it.”

 _But did you?_ Cosmo thought to themselves. They shook their head, banishing their thoughts. They had no time to try and figure out whether Blue was a deceptive liar or cruel but honest. The trial in front of them was the important part, otherwise they’d be sent right off to their death.

“I don’t think we can solve the mystery of her magic right now,” Reaper said. “There’s too little evidence, and I don’t think the bracelet was inspected well enough anyways.”

“Alright, then, what should we move on to?” Dust asked.

“I think we should go over the cause of death. The file that Blue gave us doesn’t specify it, but it does say that death was instantaneous.”

“What could cause an instant death?” Classic said. “And what’s being counted as instant?”

“Within a second or so, most likely,” Reaper mused. “Maybe not even that.”

“The only things that would do that are injuries to vital areas of the body, like the head or neck,” Hearts said. “There wasn’t any sign of blunt force trauma, was there?”

“Not that I noticed,” Dream said. “The only thing I noticed were the bruises on her neck, but I doubt those are connected to how she died.”

“Unless she was strangled,” Dance supplied. “Those are the only visible injuries, right? It has to be related.”

“But strangulation isn’t instant,” Hearts said. “It takes a good couple of minutes to suffocate someone.”

“But the death is pretty instant after they pass out, right?” Dance huffed.

“I – no, that’s not how it works.”

“Well, maybe then someone choked her until she passed out and then killed her instantly another way. Either way, it’s a possibility.”

“That’s… actually not a bad theory,” Hearts said. “Nightmare was hung, right? When someone is hung, that’s usually a pretty instant death.”

“And the bruises could have masked a broken neck,” Cosmo muttered.

“That’s still speculation,” Error huffed. “Shouldn’t we go for something more tangible? Like eliminating suspects?” He gripped the rim of the podium with his right hand, gesturing vaguely with the other, “There was a rule last time about the body discovery announcement. About how the first three people, excluding the culprit, would set off the alarm.”

“That’s right,” Reaper said. “When did the alarm go off?”

“It was after I’d gone in the room,” Geno said. “Error and Cosmo were the only two in there.”

Error snapped his fingers. “Then that’s three, right?”

Geno furrowed her brows. “I – I guess?”

“Then Cosmo _can’t_ have been the culprit. Nor you or me, but everyone’s been going after Cosmo this whole time,” Error said.

Murmurs drifted across the courtroom. Cosmo blinked softly. Had their name been cleared that quickly? It made sense, _and_ it narrowed the pool of suspects down. Not by a lot – but it was progress. They glanced over at Error, but he wasn’t meeting their gaze.

“Hold on,” Dust piped up. “I was right behind Geno. That alarm could have gone off for _me_ entering the room – which would make it four of us, and then the culprit would _have_ to be one of you three.” Dust scowled. “So that line of argument means nothing.”

Cosmo’s heart sank. “Can we even determine who set off the body discovery announcement?” they said. They looked up at Blue. “Can you tell us?”

“Nope! Sorry buddy, I only interfere when absolutely necessary. This one doesn’t count.” Blue pressed his lips together in a smile.

“So it’s either Dust or Geno who set off the alarm,” Killer said, “meaning we _still_ can’t confirm or deny if the killer is in the group of three.” With a sign, Killer ran his hand through his hair. “There’s not much else we could possibly go over. Either the killer is Cosmo-” he gestured towards them, “-or the killer did a hell of a good job in covering up their tracks.”

Cosmo shook their head desperately. No. No, this wasn’t right. “We – we should at least get everyone’s alibi,” they said. “We can at least do that since we have a time of death. Eleven PM.”

“I think everyone had left the ballroom by then,” Dance muttered. “The only ones who weren’t gone by then were me, Classic, and….”

“And me,” Horror finished. “We were the clean-up crew. We were in there until at least eleven thirty.”

“Okay, that’s something,” Reaper said. “Everyone else left the party at… what, fifteen minutes until eleven?”

“That’s right,” Geno said, “but Error, didn’t you come across Cosmo’s _locked_ bedroom door?”

“I did,” Error said.

“Meaning no one could have gotten in or out anyways,” Geno said. “Except for Cosmo and Nightmare.”

“Hold on, what if the culprit broke in?” Reaper asked. “Then they could have left.”

“There wasn’t any sign of a break-in within the room, though,” Dream replied. “And breaking down locked doors is against the rules. Blue would throw a fit about that.”

“Indeed I would!” Blue cheerily interjected.

“Okay, but regardless, do you really think anyone else could have gotten down to Cosmo’s room and committed a murder in that time without someone noticing? Especially since Nightmare so _obviously_ fought back?” Dust countered. “She had her magic!”

“That would certainly be difficult,” Geno said. “Whoever fought against her had to have tricked her.”

“How would someone have tricked her?” Cross said. “She’s not ignorant. She would have fought back regardless of what happened.”

“In that case,” Dream said, “Whoever fought against her must have had magic of their own. If Nightmare had her own magic, then I – I simply won’t believe that anyone could take her down unless they had magic themselves.”

“Should we check everyone’s bracelets then?” Classic pondered. “Just in case any of them are broken.”

“That sounds like a reasonable idea,” Hearts agreed. “It may not get us anywhere since Nightmare’s didn’t look like it was broken either, but it’s a start.”

“Everyone hold out your wrists then,” Classic said. “Dance, Horror, and I will check since we’re the ones cleared by alibi.”

Along with everyone else around the court, Cosmo held out their arm. Predictably, theirs was the first examined. As soon as they pulled their sleeve up, Dance made a beeline for them, carefully examining the bracelet before squinting and then taking a step back.

“Yours looks fine,” he mumbled before Classic nudged him towards checking the other bracelets.

After a moment, all the bracelets were examined, and they were all intact. Dance, Classic, and Horror returned to their podiums, and the room was once again filled with an awkward silence.

“…So we’ve found no leads,” Geno said. “No one in here has magic, and Nightmare did. That means Nightmare had to have been killed without it.”

“Or maybe it just means that the culprit is good at hiding the fact that they have it,” Killer reminded her. “Look. We have to make a decision sooner or later.”

“I think we should hear Cosmo’s side of the story first,” Error spoke. “If they’re not the culprit, that means they’re a key witness.”

“You think we’re going to listen to anything they have to say?” Dust piped up indignantly. “Hell no. I’m not about to let them get away with anything!”

“Relax,” Error huffed, rolling his eyes, “and just listen for a moment, all right? I’m not voting until I hear exactly what happened from Cosmo’s perspective. I’m not a fucking pushover, I won’t be swayed by a sob story. I want to get out of this alive as much as you guys do, so kindly shut up.”

“Asshole,” Dust muttered under her breath. She crossed her arms and lean back. “Go ahead. We don’t have all day.”

With a nod from Error, Cosmo finally spoke. “What… what part do you want to know about?”

“During the investigation, you said Nightmare attacked you,” Error said. “When?”

“Um… ten thirty or so? I wasn’t keeping track of the time. It might have been later than that.”

“If she attacked you, you could’ve been the one to fight back and kill her,” Cross huffed.

“She choked me with her tentacle magic stuff until I passed out! There’s no way I could have gotten around that,” Cosmo insisted.

“Can you even prove that?” Dance sneered. “You could just be pulling this out of your ass.”

“No, I’m pretty sure it’s true,” Hearts interrupted. “At least somewhat.”

“Would you stop refuting everything I say?” Dance snapped at Hearts, leaning on his podium towards him. It was by very unfortunate circumstance that the two were sat right next to each other. It almost looked like Dance was ready to claw Hearts’ face off. “It’s really getting on my nerves.”

Hearts glared right back. “I’ll stop doing so once you stop making irrational statements,” he replied, firmly pressing his lips together once he was done. “Look at Cosmo. You can see them even clearer now,” He pointed to Cosmo’s neck, “-the bruises they have. Hon, have you washed your hands since you woke up?”

“Huh?” Cosmo said.

“Your hands.”

“I – no?”

“Then show him your nails too.”

Cosmo lifted their hands, realizing that their nails were still dirty from clawing at Nightmare’s tentacles previously. They held them out.

“Well, that’s proof that they fought,” Reaper said. “But… that’s not proof that Nightmare won. In fact, the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of Nightmare _dying_ during the fight. Cosmo, you can’t prove that you don’t have magic.”

“I don’t!” Cosmo insisted. “Look – her cause of death is a snapped neck, right? I’d have to physically get her hung like that, and that would take a _lot_ of effort. From what I felt of her magic, she’s _powerful,_ and I doubt I’d be able to take her on even _with_ my magic.”

“They do have a point there,” Classic said. “Only a select few of us would be able to hold our own against her with no restrictions on our magic.”

“Well, I don’t know if that even happened,” Dream said. “There would have been… so much destruction, not just in Cosmo’s room but around the whole place, especially if a magic fight broke out.”

“Well there’s no denying Nightmare at least fought in some regard,” Dust said. “There’s evidence of her magic having been used.”

“And I think that’s a little weird, too,” Dream replied. “She… she had to have died while using her magic. There’s no way that she would have left that behind on purpose.”

“Well, it’s not like she died on purpose,” Error said, “but I agree. Something went wrong. Something happened that Nightmare didn’t intend on happening, and that mistake ended up costing her life.”

“The magic fight is making less and less sense as this goes on,” Geno said. “In Cosmo’s room, the only mess left behind was the broken light fixture and the mess of Nightmare’s magic.”

“In fact, it’s like there wasn’t any fight at all,” Ink said. “If Cosmo’s telling the truth, it’s like Nightmare choked them into unconsciousness and then decided the very next moment to hang herself.” The room fell quiet after Ink’s statement.

“Ink,” Classic started, “Was that a joke, or-”

“A joke? Well,” Ink put a finger to his chin, “Can I say no because I forgot suicide jokes were in poor taste?”

“If it wasn’t a joke, you’re making a very dangerous accusation there,” Cross warned. “And if it was, I’ll have to tell you to shut your goddamn mouth, you insensitive little prick.”

Ink frowned. “Sorry,” he muttered, though he didn’t sound remorseful. Cross huffed in begrudging acceptance.

“Blue,” Hearts spoke up, looking towards the chair where Blue was sat, “In the event of a suicide, what _does_ happen? Would there be a trial?”

Blue sighed. “Yes, yes, there would be. You’d simply vote the victim as the culprit,” he said, clearly unhappy with the information he had to give. Cosmo tilted their head to the side.

“The way you said that makes it sound like…” Cosmo trailed off. “Could Nightmare have actually-?”

“You’re not actually thinking that’s what happened, are you?” Reaper said. “Nightmare’s – she’s not the type. Why in the world would she commit suicide?”

The word ‘suicide’ hung over the courtroom like a thick cloud of fog. No one wanted to speak through it. Thoughts raced through Cosmo’s head as they slowly began to put pieces together. Why no one else had magic, why it looked like she’d died in the middle of using her magic, no signs of a struggle, no sign of a break-in – it was beginning to look like there truly weren’t any other suspects besides Cosmo. Unless, of course…

“Dream, you knew her the best,” Classic spoke. “Would she?”

“ _Dream_ knew her the best?” Cross said, affronted. “You’ve _got_ to be joking, they hated each other!”

“Of course you knew her well too,” Classic said. “I – he’s just known her for the longest, right?”

“That doesn’t mean jack shit,” Dust hissed. “I worked with her longer than – longer than anyone here.”

“I’m not getting into that,” Classic decided, raising his hands in surrender. “I just wanna know people’s opinions on this.”

“I don’t know,” Dream muttered softly. “She… if she did, then why?”

“Maybe she felt guilty over what she did – or tried to do – to Cosmo,” Reaper said.

“Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Nightmare’s too ruthless for that,” Horror said. “She wouldn’t hesitate at _all_ to kill them.”

“Even if it meant the death of everyone else in this room?” Classic said. “She may have been willing to sacrifice Cosmo’s life, but was she willing to sacrifice yours, Horror? Dust? Killer, Cross, Dream?”

“I don’t know,” Dust said at the same time Horror said, “She’d do what she had to.” Dust glanced towards Horror, frowning.

“You really think she wouldn’t?” Horror said. “She was important to me too, but don’t think she’d hesitate in sacrificing us. How can you say you don’t know?”

“I – I _don’t know!”_ Dust said again, looking down at her podium. Her knuckles were turning white with how hard she was gripping its edge. “I just don’t know if she – if she cared that much.”

“I’d like to think she did,” Dream replied quietly.

Dust softly pressed a hand over her mouth. Her shoulders shook. “I don’t know,” she forced out, high pitched and broken. “And I’d be fine never knowing as long as she – as long as she _stayed._ Here. Alive.”

Cosmo’s stomach twisted in knots. “I – I don’t know if Nightmare killed herself or not, but I swear to you, to all of you – I didn’t kill Nightmare. Everything I’ve said here has been the truth.”

“And I don’t believe you,” Dust shakily whispered. “I want you to pay for her life with your own.”

“Before we get too off track,” Reaper interrupted, “Does anyone have anything else they wanted to say regarding the case?”

“We don’t need anything else,” Dust hissed. “We need a _vote._ ”

“No!” Cosmo interrupted in a panic. “There’s too much that we’re uncertain of! We have a ton of missing alibis, too many questions about the evidence, about Nightmare’s magic and how she got it, about-”

“And how do you expect us to get that evidence?” Geno pressed. “We can’t go back and investigate more. We have to reach a verdict based on what we know now, here, at this trial.

Cosmo searched their brain for something, anything that would let them make a breakthrough – but they hadn’t been let near the body, and there wasn’t any evidence outside of their bedroom – not that they’d noticed. Had Nightmare really committed suicide? Cosmo wasn’t so inclined to believe it. Not with the intensity they’d felt as Nightmare nearly choked them to death. Someone with that amount of determination wouldn’t just… kill themselves.

But there was no other choice.

“So are you all ready?” Blue inquired.

“We’re still missing something,” Ink said, furrowing his brows and refusing to make eye contact with anyone. He pursed his lips. “Something important.”

“Do you want us to just stand here until your pea-brain remembers it, then?” Dust snapped. “No, we’re ready.”

“Dust, I think you’re hurrying into a vote when we could still think about this some more,” Reaper said.

“What more is there?” Dust shouted back at Reaper. “Last night, after the party, **Cosmo left early** to go back to their room. **Nightmare followed them** shortly after. After locking the door to Cosmo’s room behind her, she **attacked Cosmo,** but **Cosmo fought back.”**

“Nightmare was subdued, and then **hanged.** Cosmo pulled the **light fixture** out of the ceiling to do so, **snapping Nightmare’s neck and killing her instantly.** They also probably **roughed themselves up** a little bit too, to make them look like the victim in the scenario. Funny, considering they’d be compared with a literal corpse.

“Then, **Cosmo waited a few hours** to wake everyone back up. Not only would it **muddy the alibis,** it would make everyone think they’d **been unconscious** the whole time. Which is a fucking lie,” Dust finished. “I want Cosmo to pay for what they’ve fucking done, and if we spend another second here wasting our time, I’ll leap over this courtroom and throttle them myself!”

“Well, I don’t think it’s Cosmo!” Reaper replied. “Last night, **Cosmo and Nightmare both left the party early.** We can’t say for sure why either of them left, but we do know that **Nightmare left second.** She was likely going to **target Cosmo.** Nightmare also had **Cosmo’s key,** which she **stole from them** at an earlier time. Using that key, **Nightmare let herself into Cosmo’s room and locked the door behind her.”**

“After that, with her strength, Nightmare quickly **choked Cosmo until they passed out.** This is evident due to the **bruises** on Cosmo’s neck and the **black residue** under their nails from clawing at her magic. Once Cosmo passed out, well… Nightmare had **second thoughts.”**

“Using the **light fixture** from the ceiling, Nightmare decided to **take her own life.** We might never know the full reasoning, but she likely felt **guilty** over what she had planned to do – because in doing so, she’d also be **sacrificing the lives of people she cared about.** So instead of following through on her plan, she **hanged herself** from the ceiling. Cosmo was unconscious for several hours after the fact. So no, I don’t think Cosmo killed Nightmare,” Reaper finished. “I think it’s far more likely that Nightmare did this to herself.”

“Then you’re a goddamn fool,” Dust said.

“I think Dust is right,” remarked Dance, “We’re not getting anywhere. It’s obviously Cosmo. We’re done with this trial.”

Shouts flew across the courtroom. Cosmo could hardly tell who was saying what.

“We haven’t gone over all the possibilities!”

“You’re just denying the fact that Cosmo did it!”

“No, I’m trying to be reasonable, and-”

“We need a vote, now!”

“What good will a vote be if half of us don’t know who to vote for?”

“Make your decisions, now! We can’t waste any more time!”

Cosmo barely registered the tablet lighting up in front of them. Their eyes trailed across the podium to the screen with sixteen faces on it. Fell’s and Fresh’s faces were greyed out, but Nightmare’s was still vibrant as ever, with her piercing cold blue eye that seemed to stare right past the screen and into Cosmo’s soul. With shaking hands, they reached forward and pressed the screen.

“Tick tock!” Blue chirped, tapping his gavel on the arm of his chair. “We don’t have all day, you know. Vote swiftly!”

“Who hasn’t voted yet?” Cross huffed, looking out across the courtroom. “Reaper?”

“I – oh, god…” Reaper muttered, then winced and pressed a finger to the screen of her tablet. “There, I voted. Happy?”

“Very.”

“You might not be as happy when the vote comes back and you all voted for the wrong person,” Error huffed. “Cosmo didn’t do it, dumbasses.”

“You’re gonna fucking eat those words,” Dust said.

“Can you save that for after the trial, when we know for sure?” Killer snapped. “I’m sick and tired of people pretending like they know more than one another. We’re all confused and frankly, we’re angry and scared. That _includes_ you,” he said as he side-eyed Dust.

“You want payback as much as I do. Stop taking the high ground,” Dust grumbled in reply. “Who the hell hasn’t voted yet?”

Gently, Reaper nudged Ink’s side. Ink snapped back to reality and hesitated only a moment before pressing a finger to the screen of his own tablet. After making sure he voted, Reaper glanced back up. “That’s everyone, as far as I know.”

Blue started to giggle. “Come on, there’s one more of you out there! Who’s our tie breaker?”

Cosmo paled. “Tie breaker?” they blurted.

“Oh come on, it can’t be _that_ difficult of a decision, surely,” Blue groaned. “Hurry it on up!”

Cosmo glanced around the courtroom. Everyone was looking up and around, just as confused as Cosmo was – all except for one person.

“I don’t know,” Dream muttered. “I – are you sure I can’t have more time?”

“Dream, I swear to every higher power that exists,” Dust said, “ _Don’t fuck this up._ ”

“That’s not encouraging,” Hearts chastised. “Just let him vote in his own time.”

“Come on, Dream,” Cross said, intently staring him down, “You know who to vote. Just press the button and it’ll all be over. She can rest in peace. You can grieve.”

Dream visibly tensed. His hands gripped the podium in front of him tighter. “I – I don’t want to be wrong!”

“You won’t be if you just vote for Cosmo!” Dust snapped. “Avenge her, god damn it!”

“I don’t know if there’s anything _to_ avenge!” Dream cried out. His massive frame shook with fear and his eyes started to water. “I don’t – I didn’t-”

“ _VOTE!”_

The echoes of Dust’s shout bounced around the courtroom before fading away. Killer gently reached out an arm towards Dust in a meager attempt at comfort, but she shook him off.

Cosmo’s heartbeat raced faster than a rabbit’s. They knew they didn’t have much of a chance. Dream knew Nightmare, closely at that, and if Cosmo had doubts about whether or not voting Nightmare was the right thing to do, Dream would have them tenfold. Even _with_ that sort of doubt, Dream knew absolutely nothing about Cosmo besides what impression he’d been given during their time here. Cosmo doubted it was positive enough to make him believe they wouldn’t kill Nightmare. They were the odd one out. They didn’t belong here.

Dream continued to stare down at the voting screen, and then with a deep breath, the tremble in his body freezing for a single moment as he steadied himself, he voted.

Blue laughed again, loud and raucous. “Oh my, I don’t know if it can even _get_ more entertaining than that!” he gushed. “Seven votes for the culprit, and six for the _enormous_ red herring. Truly a high-stakes trial!”

“So we got it right?” Dance said with held breath.

Blue nodded. “Yup yup! Fortunately for you, you live to see another day.”

“I knew it,” Dust said. “You won’t regret that vote, Dream. Cosmo’s getting what they deserve.” A moment passed, and Dust’s expression fell as Dream stayed quiet. “…Dream?”

“I voted for Nightmare,” Dream muttered.

Dust blinked. “You… you what?”

Dream swallowed hard. “I voted for her. It was a suicide, Dust.”

Dust paused as she took in Dream’s statement. “You voted for Nightmare… and so that means she…?” Dust trailed off. Her voice started to crack on the last bits of her sentence. She clapped a hand over her mouth and started to tremble on her own. This time, she leaned to the side and let Killer wrap his arms around her as she started to sob into his chest.

Blue flippantly waved his hands. “And so concludes trial number two, yadda yadda. Can’t exactly perform an execution on a corpse. You’re free to go.”

“Wait,” Cross blurted, voice weak. “Wait. We – we need answers. _I_ need answers.”

Blue tilted his head to the side. “Whatever do you mean?”

“I mean,” Cross said, “why did she do it? Why did she…?”

Blue laughed again. “You mean why she offed herself? Goodness. You think I know what went on inside of that head of hers?” he asked. “Beats me. Maybe she woke up that morning and decided, hey, it’s Suicide Sunday!”

“Don’t talk about her like that,” Horror snapped. “Don’t – don’t you fucking _dare._ ”

“Tahaha! I already did, dear,” Blue said. “Now as I recall, you all were so rudely woken up from your beauty sleep. It’s about five in the morning now, so I recommend you all go back and get some shuteye. For realsies.”

No one spoke again. Killer gently started to guide Dust towards the elevator, as she was still relying on him for quite a bit of support. After a few moments, others began to follow. One by one, the courtroom emptied itself.

“Cosmo,” Error muttered. “Elevator’s going up.”

Cosmo didn’t even look over their shoulder. “Go,” they said. “I’ll be there.”

The elevator doors shut, and Cosmo was left alone there with Blue. He stared down at them curiously, then hopped down from his chair and into the center of the ring of podiums. He leaned across the front of Cosmo’s.

“So?”

Cosmo looked up. “So?”

“So what’cha doing?”

Cosmo felt sickened. They couldn’t fathom how someone who’d just announced someone else’s suicide could be so cheery. It was – it was _inhuman._ “…Composing myself,” they replied with shaky breath.

Another minute went by in silence. “I’m going to press that elevator button so it comes back down for you, ‘kay?” Blue said, then vaulted over the podium to Cosmo’s left and sauntered to the elevator. After a faint click of the elevator button, a few minutes went by and then the familiar ding of the elevator’s arrival sounded.

“Cosmo, dear, I can’t leave you in the trial room unsupervised.”

“What am I, a child?” Cosmo muttered, but turned around and moved inside the elevator anyways.

The ride back up was silent for a bit. Blue was grinning the whole way, rocking back and forth on his heels like _he_ was the child and it was about to be Christmas morning. “So suspenseful,” he finally said, breaking the silence. “God, I knew running this game would be satisfying.”

“Why did you lie to me about the mastermind?” Cosmo blurted, in favor of asking something that would get Blue to stop going on about the trial. But, as it was, Blue seemed confused by the question.

“Sorry, the what?” Blue replied. “Cosmo, dear, I’d never lie to you.”

“Then stop lying now,” Cosmo said. “That was just to get the focus off of yourself, wasn’t it? So you could run this game and stop us from working together to try to take you out.”

“Cosmo, I’m afraid I have no clue what you’re talking about,” he said, genuine confusion crossing his face. “Did Nightmare choke you too hard? Did the lack of air mess with your head?”

Cosmo grit their teeth. “You know exactly what I’m talking about,” they said. “Before the first murder, you teleported into the pantry and told me about a mastermind hidden in the building. I don’t know why I believed it, but even more so, I don’t know why you’d _do_ that in the first place!”

Blue pursed his lips. “…Cosmo, I think you might be sleep deprived.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“No, you’re remembering it wrong.” Blue huffed. “Cosmo, that interaction _never happened._ Host’s promise.” He held out his pinky.

Cosmo stared at him. That obviously wasn’t right. For whatever reason, though, it looked like Blue had no recollection of the encounter. They shook their head. “Forget it.”

“Oookay,” Blue said, whistling softly.

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Cosmo glanced to Blue. “I hope you know that this game helps no one,” they said, likely in vain.

Blue shrugged. “It’s fun for me. Mostly.”

“Mostly?”

“Yeah, you know, some things don’t always go according to plan,” he said. “Like this most recent trial. I was a little disappointed, Cosmo.”

Cosmo stepped out of the elevator. “Disappointed? In what?”

“Oh, just the outcome,” Blue said with a knowing smile. “I was really, _really_ looking forward to your execution, Cosmo.”

Cosmo whipped around, eyes wide, but the doors to the elevator had already slid shut.

**Author's Note:**

> Check me out on tumblr at @gallifreyan-pal where I'm a bunch more active! You can send me asks and see works in progress, updates about the story, and more!
> 
> I also have a twitter, if that suits your fancy, at @GallifreyanPal, where I'm less active but still post occasionally. You'll get notified of Lifeline updates from there, too.


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